PIA lands at wrong airport

[clipped_wings]

Did anyone tell the flight crew their correct destination?

Pakistani plane accidentally lands at wrong airport in Saudi Arabia | GulfNews.com (http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/pakistani-plane-accidentally-lands-at-wrong-airport-in-saudi-arabia-1.1318976)

[ironbutt57]

Betcha the pax were "re-routed" without their knowledge...or the pax were boarded on the wrong flight by mistake

[papershuffler]

Interesting comments:



Added 11:11 April 14, 2014
Jeddah requires an extra hour and a half flying time. An unplanned flight would not have been fuelled to travel that extra distance, and would have been intercepted by Saudis if it had gone off course. I don't think this was unintentional by the pilot but planned. The question is why Riyadh bound passengers were lied to and boarded on a flight that was going to Jeddah.
Mohammad Ali Dada, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates


Added 14:48 April 14, 2014
PK 731 IS ALWAYS A KHI - JEDDAH FLIGHT. IF you can google the flight number you will see the history of PK 731 never lands in Riyadh. Why you people are spreading false information? KHI-RUH is PK 729. you guys should take this post down. Very sad to see all this. Saudia Arabia's airspace is a sensitive one and you cant go out of course for more than 2 hours. it requires 2 hours of extra fuel and all the other stuff. I am An aviation expert and such a possibility is not even possible.
Hassan Soherwardy, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Think there's slightly more to this tale [EDIT: than what's sensationally being reported, I'd suspect the truth was more anodyne. But there's not enough info yet to bottom it out].
EDIT2: yep, see Mutt's post below about the sandstorms affecting Riyadh. That sounds a little more creditable than 'OMG! Plane lands in wrong place!'.

[DevX]

Stand by for yet more conspiracy theories...........:yuk:

[mutt]

I hate to let a routine met report interfere with conspiracy theories, but over the last couple of days, Riyadh had visibility down to 200 meters due to SAND STORMS, so it does make sense that the alternate airport was across the country, or that they cancelled the Riyadh flight due to sand and put people on the Jeddah service.

[ironbutt57]

Similar media event here few years back where passengers were quoted in the local newspaper as.."the airplane landed in the desert..not even at the airport and we cheated death"....in fact flight diverted to Doha due fog and parked in the admittedly at the time..rather desolate Echo ramp....

[DX Wombat]

They flew to the right airport only it had swapped places with the other one. ;)