On Monday morning a group of passengers on a British Airways flight, which was supposed to be heading for Düsseldorf in Germany from London, were surprised to discover that they were in fact landing in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The reason for the plane heading to the wrong country was an incorrectly-filed flight plan, which led both the pilot and the cabin crew to believe that the flight was indeed meant to go to Edinburgh. The 96-seater aircraft was operated by WDL Aviation, a German charter company, on behalf of BA CityFlyer and the error seems to have been made by the Cologne-based firm.
Scotland or Germany? Image source: Unsplash
It took a while for passengers to realise that they were making the detour of almost 965km. A few passengers noticed as they were coming in to land that the landscape was not the industrial one they had expected, however, some only became aware after the pilot welcomed them to Edinburgh.
Passenger Zsófia Szabó told CNN, ‘When we started descending and I saw some taller hills/mountains, I did think that this isn’t how Eastern Netherlands/Western Germany should look like but I assumed we took some small detour,’ she said. ‘Then my colleague sitting across the aisle from me told me to check Google Maps – and it showed us being around Carlisle.’
Word spread among the passengers, and on landing the crew asked if any of them intended to go to Düsseldorf. All of them did. After an apology was issued, there was a two-and-a-half-hour wait on the tarmac while the plane was refuelled and a new flight plan was presumably issued before the flight took off for Germany – in the right direction this time.
When the news broke, Irish low-cost carrier RyanAir was quick to issue a humorous tweet offering a copy of Geography for Dummies to British Airways.
One passenger, Son Tran, also tweeted to BA: ‘While an interesting concept, I don’t think anyone on-board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery.’
Passengers should be compensated with €250 (about R4,060) under EU flight delay regulation 261, after arriving in Düsseldorf five hours and 20 minutes late, when it should have been only an hour-long flight.
‘We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually,’ BA said in a statement.
‘We are working with WDL Aviation, who operated this flight on behalf of British Airways, to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed.
Featured image: WDL Aviation
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