Airline Assigns Passenger Seat That Doesn't Exist In Aircraft, 'Rude' Crew Unhelpful

A passenger on board a Lion Air plane expressed her disappointment after she found her assigned seat did not exist in the aircraft. Satwika Ika was traveling from Palembang to Jakarta in Indonesia when the incident occurred.

She took to her Facebook account to express her shock about the airline's seating mishap. In a photo Ika shared on social media, her ticket appeared to be marked for 35F, but the plane rows ended at 34.

According to Ika, she alerted a flight attendant after not being able to find her seat. However, she complained the crew was “rude” and “lacked manners.” But the attendant later explained when Ika purchased her ticket for the Sept. 16 flight on the budget airliner, a larger plane was scheduled. The aircraft was later changed due to which the seat she was assigned was not present.

Ika also said another family with a young child experienced the same problem as they were also assigned to row 35, Daily Mail reported.

Finally, when everyone was on board, Ika was directed to a free seat in the middle of the plane.

Lion Air later issued an apology to Ika on social media after her since-deleted post had been viewed more than 10,000 times.

According to the Daily Mail, Lion Air's corporate communications officer, Danang Mandala Prihantoro, wrote the flight should have been initially operated by a Boeing 737-900ER with a capacity of 215 seats spread over 39 rows. Due to aircraft rotations, Lion Air used a Boeing 737-800NG with 189 seats and 34 rows instead.

Ika told the Daily Mail while the airline apologized for the seating mishap, it did not address the "impolite behavior of their two flight attendants."

In another incident in March, at least 10 passengers on a Lion Air flight from Borneo island were injured after panic ensued when a man claimed there was a bomb on board the plane.

Airline spokesman Danang Mandala said in a statement at the time the one-hour flight was delayed because a panicked passenger opened both emergency exits over the “bomb joke.”