This or That

Airline passengers buy ticket to Germany, flight goes to Scotland instead

Bob CollinsBob Collins Mar 25, 2019
3

Quick: What’s the difference between Scotland and Germany?

If you had any answer at all, you’re ahead of British Airways, whose plane landed in Scotland even though it was supposed to go to Germany, the New York Times reports.

The plane took off from London and went pretty much the opposite way of the direction to Düsseldorf.

There’s a reasonable explanation — not like when a Northwest flight forgot to land in Minneapolis that one time — paperwork.

All the passengers got on the plane thinking they were going to Germany. But the paperwork submitted to the pilots said Edinburgh. So Edinburgh it was.

Even the flight attendants offered a “Welcome to Edinburgh” announcedment upon landing. Did nobody make the boarding announcement of where the plane was heading? Apparently not.

“It became very frustrating. The toilets were blocked and they ran out of snacks. It was also really stuffy,” passenger Sophie Cooke, 24, told the BBC.

It was still funny, according to this reporter trying to get through his story without cracking up.

The Guardian says the pilots didn’t accept the fact they’d landed at the wrong airport until they asked for a show of hands to see who had expected to land in Germany.

The flight got to Germany about three hours late.