The Dhaka Times Desk to call is the capital and largest city of Senegal. American Los Angeles resident Sandy Valdivieso and her husband boarded a plane from Los Angeles Airport to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, but when they got off the plane, they finally arrived in the capital of Bangladesh. In Dhaka! Although it may sound surprising, this is what finally happened in the aviation sector.
Sandy, 31, works as an academic counselor at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). She and her 39-year-old martial arts instructor husband Trait Vo wanted to travel to Senegal, Africa, to visit Sandy's old colleagues. However, due to a wrong 3-character code of the Turkish Airlines staff, they reached Dhaka instead of Dakar.
The code for Los Angeles is LAX, the code for Senegal's capital Dakar is DKR and the code for Bangladesh's capital Dhaka is DAC. Turkish Airlines staff put From LAX To DAC instead of From LAX To DKR on the ticket. So when they were about to embark on their 2nd journey after landing in Istanbul, Turkey after a 4 hour wait, neither of them realized that they had stepped onto the wrong flight. Even sitting in seats 31A and 31B, they did not realize that they were sitting on the wrong plane.
Interestingly, when Dhaka was announced on the plane for the convenience of passengers, they thought it was a Turkish accent problem. So they fall asleep on the plane for sure and wake up to realize they're over the Middle East. They look around and see Asians instead of Africans. Then they realized that they had made a big mistake. They can talk to Turkish Air about 9 hours after landing in Bangladesh. Turkish Airlines said they will check their records to see if Sandy actually selected the correct flight. However, Turkish Airlines finally put them on a flight from Dhaka to Istanbul and then from Istanbul to Dhaka after about 12 hours at no extra cost. Sandy received their goods 2 days after arriving in Istanbul.
After this incident, Sandy called the authority of Turkish Airlines every Friday for 1 month. Turkish Airlines authorities told him that the matter would be looked into and he would be informed later. But they didn't. But Sandy is not ready to give up. Finally, after 4 long months, Fatema, the general manager of Turkish Airlines West Coast, contacted him to say that the wrong code on the ticket had caused the untoward incident and that he was "very, very sorry." Fatema also said that the Turkish Airlines authorities have allocated 2 free economy class tickets for Sandy and her husband so that they can fly to any destination on Turkish Airlines.
"It was a really horrible experience," Sandy said. He also said, "From now on, I will board the plane only after checking the ticket 3 times.
Reference: Los Angeles Times
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