‘Shamshabad? What’s that?’

I’ve heard of people missing flights, but this is the first I’ve heard of a flight missing an airport:

In a slip-up barely hours after the Shamshabad airport opened for business, a KLM flight from Amsterdam, which was supposed to land at Hyderabad, skipped the airport and flew across the country — first to Delhi, and then to Mumbai.

Apparently, the pilot knew nothing about the new airport and was flying towards Begumpet only to be told that the facility had been shut. He was directed to Shamshabad, to which the pilot asked the air traffic control: “Shamshabad? What’s that?” The pilot then flew to Delhi, from where, after being refused permission to land, he took the plane to Mumbai.

I can imagine the pilot as a child asking for peanut-butter toast and being given toast with jam on it instead. “Jam? What’s that?” he says. “I want my peanut butter.”

(Link via email from Anand Gadiyar.)