- A British Airways flight travelling from London to Germany mistakenly landed Scotland
- The error was caused by incorrectly filed flight plan
- The British Airways said it is investigating why an incorrect flight plan was filed
There was a mild drama and surprise on Monday, March 25, when passengers on a British Airways flight travelling from London's City Airport to Dusseldorf in Germany found themselves in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
According to CNN, the travel error was due to an incorrectly filed flight plan, which misled both the pilot and cabin crew to believe the flight was bound for Edinburgh.
Legit.ng gathers that the incorrect flight plan was filed at German leasing company WDL Aviation's offices in Germany.
However, after mistakenly landing in Edinburgh, the plane took off to the right destination, Dusseldorf.
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CNN further reports that Piotr Pomienski, a student at Imperial College London, claimed his girlfriend Zsófia Szabó was on the plane.
"I saw on Flightradar that the flight was flying north instead of south, but I assumed it was a system error of some sort. That is until she wrote to me that they're in Edinburgh," Pomienski was quoted to have said.
Szabó, the girlfriend, also reportedly said she realized something wasn't right when she saw mountains outside the plane, instead of the "usual German industrial landscape".
"When we started descending and I saw some taller hills/mountains, I did think that this isn't how Eastern Netherlands/Western Germany should look like but I assumed we took some small detour.
"Then my colleague sitting across the aisle from me told me to check Google Maps -- and it showed us being around Carlisle."
"The information then spread around quite quickly. Everyone started asking everyone else where they were going -- everyone was for Dusseldorf."
"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," she said.
The captain subsequently apologised to the passengers, telling them the plane would refuel before heading to Germany.
"Most of us found this situation quite funny. People were on phone calls trying to convince everyone that they've arrived in the wrong city," Szabó added.
A spokesperson for British Airways said the airline was working with WDL Aviation to find out why an incorrect flight plan was filed.
"We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually," the spokesperson said.
WDL Aviation also said in a statement that it is working with authorities to how and why the mix-up happened.
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In a related development, the Ethiopian Airlines has dismissed reports that the pilot of the Boeing 737 MAX that crashed on Sunday, March 10, killing all 157 people on board, was not trained on new simulator for the aircraft.
Recall that a source disclosed that the captain of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight did not practise on a new simulator for the Boeing 737 MAX 8 before the plane went down, killing everyone on board.
The pilot identified as Yared Getachew, was reportedly due for refresher training at the end of March.
However, in a tweet on its official Twitter page, the Ethiopian Airlines said it"expressed its disappointment on the following wrong reporting of the @nytimes titled “Ethiopian Airlines Had a Max 8 Simulator, but Pilot on Doomed Flight Didn’t Receive Training”
"Ethiopian Airlines pilots completed the Boeing recommended and FAA approved differences training from the B-737 NG aircraft to the B-737-8 MAX fleet to the Ethiopian operation and before they start flying the B-737-8 MAX," it tweeted.
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Source: Legit.ng