Security incident or simple stupidity?
About a week ago my wife and I were on a flight from Barcelona to Newcastle, with a flight to Belgrade boarding simultaneously from the adjacent gate. During pushback and safety demonstration a number of passengers stood up to say that they were on the wrong flight, having boarded what they thought was the Belgrade flight. With an inevitable delay, we went back to the gate, offloaded the passengers, and after another delay for revised air traffic control clearance we got underway rather late, landing Newcastle nearly two and half hours late.
We felt uneasy at the security implications of what happened, and everyone we tell comes out with the same comment. Granted, we were airside, past security, and doubtless the passengers made a simple, stupid mistake. Yet it does beg the question as to what the gate staff were really doing, plus surely a headcount on the half full flight would have flagged an anomaly? Am sure if we write to the airline expressing our concerns the reply will be a pro forma assurance of security taken seriously, especially as doubtless the captain will have already reported the matter, most probably in forthright terms. However, we are still minded to write as we do feel uneasy. Thoughts?