British Airways Passengers Catch A Flight To Dusseldorf, Instead They Land In Edinburgh
Passengers on board British Airways flight number BA3271 left London with their destination set firmly on Dusseldorf in Germany. However, there was confusion when the aircraft landed with the announcement, “Welcome to Edinburgh.”
According to News.com.au, the announcement wasn’t a mistake by the announcer, either. The aircraft actually touched down in Edinburgh, some 528 miles (850 km) away from Dusseldorf.
Some are questioning why the error was not picked up earlier in the flight, such as when weather details were announced for Edinburgh. However, it has been suggested that maybe passengers were not paying close attention to the details of the weather alert made by the pilot. However, when they touched down in Edinburgh at 8:45 a.m., they certainly sat up and began to pay attention.
One passenger took to Twitter to voice their opinion on the matter.
“[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.”
British Airways responded.
“The flight has been diverted to Edinburgh, we don’t have any information as to why at the moment,” a British Airways representative said in a tweet.
“There is an estimated departure time of 10:30 a.m. from Edinburgh to make way to Dusseldorf.”
Passengers on board BA3271 left the London City Airport on the 7:45 a.m. service and were not expecting to land anywhere except the intended destination. However, according to the New Zealand Herald, the mistake might have been made due to the same route being flown previously on Sunday, March 24.
"When we landed there was a bit of a hilarious moment when the flight attendant asked for a show of hands for the people going to Dusseldorf, which turned out to be everyone," one passenger said. https://t.co/Mec8EO7cUX
— CNN International (@cnni) March 25, 2019
When the error was realized, the service then flew the passengers — many described as being irate over the blunder — on to their intended destination, albeit very much behind schedule.
British Airways has since issued a statement on the matter.
“We have apologized to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually,” British Airways said.
The flight was operated by WDL (Westdeutsche Luftwerbung) and leased out to British Airways. WDL is now investigating how such a blunder could occur. In a statement, they said they are “working closely with the authorities to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up of flight schedules could occur.”
“At no time has the safety of passengers been compromised. We flew the passengers on the flight with number BA3271 to Dusseldorf after the involuntary stopover in Edinburgh.”
