Oops! BA pilot on Dusseldorf run ends up in Edinburgh

Baffled passengers flown 380miles the wrong way

THE first time anyone on flight BA3271 from London to Dusseldorf realised something might be wrong was when the plane landed and the pilot announced: ‘Welcome to Edinburgh!’

Unfortunately for the passengers, he wasn’t kidding.

Instead of flying dozens of travellers the 310 miles from London City Airport to the west German city, British Airways took them 380 miles to Scotland’s capital.

One passenger called Sofia said: ‘Everything up until landing seemed normal – the departure gate said Dusseldorf, the flight attendants said, “Plane to Dusseldorf”.

‘When we landed we were told to put our hands up if we were on the wrong flight. It was everybody – no one got off the plane.’

Even Edinburgh Airport was bemused. A spokesman said: ‘We’re a welcoming airport – but this was a surprise for us as well as them!’

The 7.47am service from London finally left Edinburgh at 10.30am, arriving in Dusseldorf more than three and a half hours late after a 940-mile round-trip.

Some passengers vented their frustration on social media. Son Tran tweeted BA: ‘Can you please explain how can my morning flight to Dusseldorf land in Edinburgh?

‘While an interesting concept, I don’t think anyone on board signed up for this mystery travel lottery. The crew was convinced of the Edinburgh flight path from the get-go.’

Piotr Pomienski tweeted: ‘What on Earth happened? The flight went to Edinburgh, everyone wanted to go to Germany, no explanation offered.’

BA said the flight crew of the British Aerospace 146 plane, which can take 112 passengers, appeared to have acted in good faith after being given the wrong flight plan.

The service was operated by German airline WDL Aviation on behalf of BA, which believes that after it flew to Edinburgh on the previous day, someone at WDL mistakenly repeated the flight plan yesterday.

When the crew arrived at London City Airport, it is thought that they saw Edinburgh on their flight plan from the day before and simply followed the old flight route.

British Airways and WDL Aviation have begun an investigation.

A BA spokesman said: ‘We have apologised to customers and will be contacting them all individually.’

WDL Aviation said: ‘We are working to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up could occur.’

‘What on Earth happened?’