Figure this one out, sports fans: A British Airways flight, scheduled to depart England and arrive in Germany, has somehow managed to accidentally wind up in Scotland instead.
[jwplayer jQ2zjxrR]
The story goes that the flight – BA3271 – departed London City Airport at 7:30am local time on Monday, and was scheduled to arrive in Dusseldorf, Germany at around 9:40am.
Instead, for reasons that remain baffling to just about everyone involved, the plane headed straight for Edinburgh, Scotland, around 800-odd kilometres from Dusseldorf and certainly not anywhere within Germany.
Passengers reportedly became far-beyond confused when the pilot made an announcement about their imminent arrival into Edinburgh. That, remarkably enough, was followed by another pilot announcement asking people on-board to raise their hands if they believed they were supposed to go to Dusseldorf. As you can imagine, bulk hands were raised.
As it turns out, the issues seem to have stemmed from an incorrect flight plan being filed by the plane’s operating officials WDL Aviation. That plan put the plane on a path from London to Edinburgh, which both pilots and air traffic controllers followed without realising anything had gone bung.
Once on the ground in Edinburgh, passengers began posting to social media about the whole ordeal.
@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
https://twitter.com/denshigishi/status/1110109085406584833
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
Somehow it managed to get worse for passengers: Fixing the administrative error meant holding passengers on-board the plane for over three hours while the plane was refuelled and new flight plans were hastily filed.
One passenger by the name of Sophie Cooke told the BBC that the plane was “very stuffy,” that the “toilets were blocked,” and that they “ran out of snacks.”
A plane full of sweaty, clamming people eating too many tiny bags of pretzels and doing heaving big shits. Absolute hell scenes, I tell you.
Fortunately enough, the plane subsequently took off from Edinburgh and landed in Dusseldorf later in the day. British Airways confirmed they contacted each passenger individually to apologise, and has launched an investigation into the rather bizarre mix-up.
