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Saturday, September 13, 2014

Bad!! How Egypt Air wrongly flew me to another country, tore my passport, locked me up and called me bloody Nigerian

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A Nigerian medical student returning to school in Ukraine tells the story of how he nearly died at the hands of Egypt Air officials who wrongly routed him to Moldova, never gave him food for days and called him bloody Nigerian before deporting him back to Lagos.  Story as written by JOSHUA KUNLE ABDUL-AZEEZ.

The student who is lucky to be alive and whose ordeal should interest Nigerians.

On Friday, August 15, 2014 my mother and I went to Egypt Air head office at 22B Idowu Taylor Street, Victoria Island, Lagos to book a return ticket for me to go back to school to continue my studies at Dnepropetrovsk Medical Academy, Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine. This was about 11:15 am.

On entering the Egypt air office we met Mr. Tony Nzan on counter 1 to attend to us and we asked to book a ticket to Kiev, Ukraine.   Mr. Tony Nzan explained to us the itinerary for the flight going to Ukraine after which we went to the bank to withdraw money and returned to pay for the ticket and obtained two printouts, so that my mother could have my return itinerary from Kiev next year.


We reviewed the ticket itinerary before leaving Egypt air’s office and immediately observed that the airport code indicated on it was different from what we were familiar with, having traveled to Kiev before.   The ticket indicated an unfamiliar airport code.

We immediately brought this discovery to another ticketing officer’s attention who was seated at Counter 2, as we were informed that his colleague, Mr. Nzan, had stepped out of the office. This ticketing officer restated that the ticket was full economy and for Kiev, Ukraine with all the segments confirmed. However, we remained unconvinced, given that our prior experience indicated that the airport code for Kiev, Ukraine would usually read “KBP”.

On my scheduled date of departure (18th August, 2014) my mother and I arrived for check-in at 10.30am. Given our apprehension, we once again mentioned our concern to the agent at the check-in counter and requested that she reconfirm the final travel destination indicated on my ticket. She confirmed that the ticket indicated “KIV” and was bound for Kiev, Ukraine. My mother then told her it should read Borispol International Airport KBP not KIV or Chisinahu as was indicated on the ticket.

Given our insistence over this and the fact that there was now a queue building up behind us she called her supervisor, one   Mr Lucas to check the ticket. He asked us what the matter was and we explained to him that we believed the routing on my ticket was wrong. We also told him we had complained about this, the day the ticket was purchased but that we were repeatedly told that the routing was to Kiev.

We also mentioned to him that we went back to Egypt Air’s Victoria Island office on Saturday morning (16th August ) still very concerned about the ticket. The place was closed for business. My mum then asked that I show Mr. Lucas and his colleague my residence and study permits for Ukraine and reaffirm my intended destination to be Kiev in Ukraine and not the place indicated on the ticket, which appeared to be “Chisinahu.”

Mr. Lucas proceeded to telephone Mr. Tony who issued the ticket to reconfirm routing but Mr. Tony insisted that the code (KIV) was Egypt air’s code for Ukraine.

Mr. Tony also became nonchalant and abusive and said that my mother “was just being troublesome”. My mother then directed that I get the boarding passes which had earlier been printed for me since they were insisting it was Egypt Air’s code for Ukraine and that they were representatives of the airline. She warned Mr. Lucas that for the airline’s sake, she hoped that they were right and we were wrong. I checked in my two suit cases with a total weight of 47.5kg and went to the departure gate and boarded the flight.

I arrived Cairo shortly after 10pm same day and was compelled to remain in the transit area for 14 hours, without feeding. No accommodation was provided by the airline. I presented myself for boarding at the boarding gate at 9am the following morning (August 19th) and was the third passenger on queue for boarding to Istanbul. When it was my turn,   the Egypt air boarding staff insisted that I present my Ukrainian visa before processing my boarding pass.   She did not ask same of the passengers ahead of me. I explained that I had a permit because I school there and presented the permit stamp on my passport, whilst explaining that the document was in my hand luggage. Still, she insisted that I moved aside and present the original document.I then retrieved it from the luggage.

Having seen my permit, the staff still refused to allow me through and insisted I remain at the corner I was in. I complied and watched closely to see if she would follow the same procedure for all other passengers boarding, but to my surprise, not once did she do so. I remained there until everyone else had boarded before she came round to scrutinise the original permit and eventually allowed me to board the flight. We departed Cairo for Istanbul at 10.50am.

We arrived at Istanbul at 2pm on 19th August and I was again compelled to remain in transit for another 17 hours, without accommodation, food or water. At 7am on 20th August, I boarded the flight in Istanbul, expecting to arrive Ukraine at 6am local time. Once onboard the flight, I slept off due to fatigue and hunger – having been deprived of good sleep and food for 2 days at the time.

When I woke up, the flight hostesses had already served refreshment and passed me by. I then requested for my meal but was told it was too late to be served.


Once we landed, believing I was in Ukraine, I proceeded to immigration and presented my travel documents. The immigration officer asked that I wait at his desk, left and then returned with a local police officer. Both officers then explained to me in Russian language that I was not in Ukraine but in Moldova (a distinct country) and that the best they could do was to send me back to Istanbul, where I could then buy a new ticket to Kiev.

My passport was then handed over to the pilot of the next flight to Istanbul and I was given my baggage tags for my two suit cases that had by now been placed in the main cabin of the plane.

When I boarded the plane and sat on seat (23E) assigned to me, a male member of the cabin crew ordered me to stand up, sent me to the back of the plane and told me not to move. Another member of the cabin crew sat with me for the entire duration of the flight. I felt so degraded at being treated like a criminal. I was given neither food nor drink throughout the flight back to Istanbul. This was now my third day without food or water. I had now developed a cough and my gums were all swollen.

We arrived at Istanbul and I was immediately taken to the deportation office, where my passport was handed to the officer on duty. The officer interrogated me on what happened and I explained to him how the airline had ticketed me to a wrong destination. I asked if I could be allowed to buy a ticket to Ukraine from there (with my school fees in my possession), which was my intended destination all along.

The officer agreed to my purchasing a new ticket to Kiev and I was placed in a room for over four hours. After two hours of not knowing what was going on or what was being done with my documents, I requested to use the toilet, in the hope that I would find a cell phone to borrow and call my family to inform them of what was happening, but the officer posted outside the room refused and ordered me to sit down.

I continued asking to use the toilet for over 10 minutes until she finally allowed me to go and answer the call of nature. I eventually found a telephone and then called my elder sister in Nigeria, explained the situation to her and asked her to inform my mother. Once my mother was informed, she contacted my university and her Ukrainian liaison agent in Kiev and requested that they assist by purchasing a ticket on my behalf for Kiev, which would enable me to leave for Ukraine from Istanbul.

The ticket was swiftly purchased and I was forwarded the “PNR number” by phone. I then proceeded to Egypt air’s transit desk and explained what had happened. I gave the lady on duty the PNR number for new ticket and requested her to assist me check-in for the flight to Ukraine. She refused to entertain my explanation and told me they would send me back to Nigeria, no matter what I did.

Another Egypt airline official joined us and to my utter shock and dismay, picked up my passport and tore it, saying “these bloody Nigerians”. I looked at the man expecting an apology, but got none. He ordered me to stand up, saying that I was getting on a flight to Cairo.

At about 6pm I was taken to the boarding gate for the flight to Cairo and my documents were handed over to the cabin crew. I was once again treated like a criminal and taken to the back of the plane. A cabin crew member gave me some water and handed me only one baggage tag and informed me that one had gotten missing.

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