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A BRITISH AIRWAYS plane flew by mistake from London to Edinburgh instead of Düsseldorf in Germany today.
Passengers only found out about the mishap when the pilot said the plane was coming in to land in Edinburgh, which is around 800 kilometres from Düsseldorf.
After the crew realised the mistake, the plane was refuelled and flown to Düsseldorf, landing in Germany with a delay of more than three and a half hours.
The airline said today the problem started when an incorrect flight plan was filed by WDL Aviation, which operated the flight on behalf of British Airways.
Officials say the pilot followed the flight plan for Edinburgh, and that air traffic control officials also were following the same flight plan and saw nothing amiss.
WDL aviation said it was trying to determine the cause of the “obviously unfortunate mix-up.”
“We are working with WDL Aviation, who operated this flight on behalf of British Airways, to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed,” a spokesman said.
Twitter user Son Tran, who said he was on the plane, said: “While an interesting concept, I don’t think anyone on board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery”.
Another passenger, Sophie Cooke, told the BBC that the wait in Edinburgh “became very frustrating”.
“The toilets were blocked and they ran out of snacks. It was also really stuffy,” Cooke said.
- © AFP 2019 with reporting by Associated Press
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Pilot.
“We are in Edinburgh surely”.
Passenger.
“But I want to be in Dusseldorf. And don’t call me Shirley”
@Andy mc Laughlin: Cabon tax is a scam. We need an election NOW.
@Thomas Roche: Who are we?
@Thomas Roche: Alright Shirley
@Paul Furey: us are we
So much for checking boarding passes.
@Padraig Salah: It seems that the cabin crew were also expecting to land in Dusseldorf and just as surprised as the passengers.
@Padraig Salah: BA don’t have a policy of checking boarding cards onboard on short haul services. This was scrapped a number of years ago.
If the gate staff and passengers boarded a plane for destination A then it can only be assumed the crew honestly thought they were going to Destination B!
He took a wrong turn in Charlestown, & ended up in Knock…..
@Mickey Amoko: Now!Now!Now! Don’t knock Knock!
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: Who’s there?!
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: Knock with its Walmart sized car park do you mean
That’s 100% NOT the BA Aircraft which landed in Edinburgh!
@Dotty Dunleary: Maybe 25 years ago when they still used that livery!
@mcdb06: or in the last 3 weeks.. BA painted 4 747-400′s in old style liveries to celebrate their 100th anniversary this year. They were all painted in Dublin bar one A319 which was painted in Shannon. Check #BA100 on Twitter. :)
@mcdb06: That pic was taken quite recently at either Dublin or Heathrow airports, they repainted some of the 747′s in retro liveries….
@Dotty Dunleary: Some hop London to Edinburgh in a 747.
@Dotty Dunleary: very true. The plane that landed in Edinburgh was a BAE 146. Not a 747.
Bit of a size difference hehe.
The flight crew were handed flight plans by their company, WDL aviation Gmbh of Germany (a charter flight for British Airways) for Edinburgh but the plans should have been for Düsseldorf Airport. A clue to why this happened might be in the airport codes.
The IATA code for Edinburgh Airport is EDI, whereas the ICAO code for Düsseldorf Airport is EDDL. Perhaps someone printed off the wrong flight plans after mixing up airport codes. Anyhow, flight crew duly followed the flight plans handed to them, so flew to Edinburgh as instructed with a plane full of passengers who wanted to go to Düsseldorf.
Also, it’s odd that none of the passengers wondered why the Sun wasn’t shining in from the right hand side windows and why they were flying over the north of England instead of the English Channel.
@David Jordan: you at this multiple accounts lark?
@David Jordan: should have gone to Specsavers then….
Is this some kind of roulette airline? Buy a ticket to Glasgow and you could be jetting off to sunny Rome
Burgh-Exit.
Do planes not have a compass anymore !?!
“As a protest, to show you what the future will look like, we are no longer flying to the E.U. not sorry for the inconvenience, yee should have voted remain”
Wouldn’t this mishap have shown up when requesting IFR clearance??
@Oliver Jumelle: Too anoraky a comment.
@Oliver Jumelle: no because they followed the filed plan. It was just the wrong plan.
@Paul Furey: how?? I’m a planespotter!
@Oliver Jumelle: Oooops! As I was saying……
Sometimes there are no words ha ha
Thank God, they had enough fuel to make the extra 800 kilometres.
EDI (edin) v EDDL (dusel). .maybe just a Freudian air slip ..
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