Flight Bound For Germany Lands 525 Miles Away In Scotland

Of all the things you imagine might go wrong while flying on an plane; engine failures, bad weather - the very last is that the pilot will take you in the complete wrong direction.

But that's exactly what happened to a group of unlucky passengers in London, who, instead of touching down safely in Düsseldorf, Germany, recently, found themselves 525 miles away from their desired destination, in Edinburgh.

Apologising for the error, British Airways told Business Insider the plane ended up in the Scottish capital after the flight's paperwork was submitted incorrectly.

According to reports in the BBC, the plane's passengers were only made aware of the mix up when a speaker announcement came on welcoming them all to Edinburgh, after they had landed.

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The British Airways statement said: "We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually."

German firm WDL Aviation was in charge of the flight, which left London's City Airport. British Airways has now said the company was working with WDL to ascertain exactly how the wrong flight plan was submitted.

It's understood that the flight has now been rerouted and landed at Düsseldorf International Airport.

WDL Aviation told BI: "We 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."

Some of the passengers who were aboard the mismanaged flight took to Twitter to vent their bemusement.

One traveller tweeted about the flight after it landed at he wrong destination. Fortunately he was able to see the funny side of it all, describing it as a 'mystery travel lottery'.

He wrote: "@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."

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A spokesperson for BA then apologised, writing: "The flight has been diverted to Edinburgh, we don't have any information as to why at the moment. There is an estimated departure time of 10:30 from Edinburgh to make way to Dusseldorf."

Seemingly accepting of their reason, the confused traveller responded: "This feels like an honest mistake rather than a diversion. The crew was convinced of the Edinburgh flight path from the get-go."

Topics: World News, UK News, british airways, Interesting

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom