British Airways passengers on a flight from London’s City Airport to Dusseldorf got the ‘wurst’ surprise on Monday morning when their plane ended up touching down in Edinburgh.
We’ve all been there… (haven’t we?) You get told the address from your mate and lazily punch the deets into the GPS in your car before going into autopilot as you head off for your destination – Only to realise somewhere along the way that you are definitely NOT heading in the right direction.
MAJOR OOPS.
Apparently, this navigational error was down to a similar sausage finger mistake with an incorrectly filed flight plan by someone in Germany, leading both the pilot and cabin crew to believe the flight was bound for Edinburgh.
I have fallen asleep, missed my stop and woken up at the end of the district line before. This morning I never expected to wake up from my Dusseldorf bound flight…in Edinburgh! @British_Airways #BritishAirways #BA3271
— Peter James-Hamilton (@PJamesHamilton) March 25, 2019
Flight BA3271 was operated by a German leasing company on behalf of the British Airways subsidiary airline BA CityFlyer, with the incorrect flight plan alleged to have been filed in Germany.
The passengers onboard initially assumed the “welcome to Edinburgh” PA message was a joke and only discovered it was true when the captain entered the cabin and asked people to put up their hands if they were expecting to go to Dusseldorf.
The Scotsman newspaper said Edinburgh airport described the landing as “a surprise”.
“We’re a welcoming airport that is always happy to greet visitors from all over the world to our fantastic city, but this was a surprise for us as well as them,’’ an airport spokesman said
The plane then sat on the tarmac for what must have been an awkward two and a half hours before finally setting off again for Dusseldorf.
According to one passenger;
“The information then spread around quite quickly. Everyone started asking everyone else where they were going – everyone was for Dusseldorf.”
“Most of us found this situation quite funny,” one passenger said. “People were on phone calls trying to convince everyone that they’ve arrived in the wrong city.”
@British_Airways can you please explain how can my morning flight taking off from LCY to Dusseldorf land in Edinburgh ?? While an interesting concept, I don’t think anyone on board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery… #BA3271 #frequenttravel #britishairways
— Son Tran (@sontrantuan) March 25, 2019
Another passenger on the flight, Son Tran, told CNN: “Most passengers sleep or work through this flight, so no one really noticed we were not flying over the Channel. We only realised we are in Scotland once we descended on approach and asked the crew.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for British Airways said the airline was working with WDL Aviation “to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed.”
A British Airways spokesperson said, “We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually,”.
Just 5 days out from April Fool’s day, they almost got away with it.
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