Missed Abuja by just a little!

[Sailvi767]

https://simpleflying.com/united-nigeria-airlines-flights-suspended-wrong-airport-landing/

[oceancrosser]

https://simpleflying.com/united-nigeria-airlines-flights-suspended-wrong-airport-landing/

Well, mixing that kind of operator, and Nigeria (where I have operated) is probably a questionable proposition to begin with…

[CW247]

I can see how this can happen, 5 sectors a day, OCC to OCC miscommunication, EFB fatigue, fuel tanking confusion. Not an easy operation.

[WHBM]

I can see how this can happen, 5 sectors a day, OCC to OCC miscommunication, EFB fatigue, fuel tanking confusion. Not an easy operation.
This has happened multiple times elsewhere, including on mainstream European routes. It always happens with wet-leased subcharters, and the crew always know where they are going and have the right fuel, the flight plan has been filed for there, but it's wrong for where the passengers have been loaded for. Two lots of dispatching, one by the operating carrier and one by the commercial airline they are doing the work for. It especially seems to occur where the crew have been told they are to do two consecutive round trips to the same place, but it's actually one to there, then a second elsewhere. Wet leased from an overseas operator normally means the flight crew do not make PA announcements, these being done by local cabin staff. Looks amusing but not an issue. It's also generally characterised by journalists reporting it completely wrong, making descriptions up, etc.

[CW247]

Very well summarised!

[Midland 331]

In the days of the November stands at Heathrow (coaching), I recall hearing an account of Leeds passengers boarded on the Teesside aircraft. I would have thought that the head count would have exposed the error, but apparently, the cabin crew P.A. did.

In the style of coaches at a 1950s seaside resort, it was always wise to yell up the stairs prior to boarding "Is this the Teesside?".

[megan]

it was always wise to yell up the stairs prior to boarding "Is this the Teesside?"Boarded a Continental Airlines DC-10 at Honolulu for a flight to Aukland, CC made the welcome aboard announcement for a flight to Sydney, all the pax yelled out as one "we're going to Aukland, CC responded you should be on the aircraft on our left. Some delay while things were sorted, we were on the correct aircraft but I was left wondering about the crew.

[krismiler]

BA did it as well.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-british-airways-flight-lands-in-edinburgh-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

As did Northwest Airlines.

https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19951001&slug=2144546

[Old Coder]

It's an easy mistake to make - ABB instead of ABV - those are adjacent keys on a qwerty keyboard...

[blind pew]

Mate got airborne on a Daventry departure dispatched by shuttle and realised they didn’t know where they were going (we carried plogs for Glasgow and Edinburgh at that time although Belfast and Manchester were later added) a quick call on box 3 sorted the problem.
I was once boarded onto a Zagreb flight and it was only when I asked a crew member why we had a delay that I discovered that I wasn’t on the Zurich BA flight; fortunately the Zurich flight was delayed.

[WHBM]

It's an easy mistake to make - ABB instead of ABV - those are adjacent keys on a qwerty keyboard...
Unfortunately ops use ICAO codes. But you could be on the right lines. Abuja (ABV) is ICAO code DNAA, while Asaba (ABB) is DNAS. And A and S are adjacent on a western keyboard. Fly2Sky, the actual operator, is however based in Sofia, Bulgaria, where Cyrillic keyboards are standard, so further potential for a confusion of two adjacent keys in a non-native language.

[FUMR]

BA did it as well.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-british-airways-flight-lands-in-edinburgh-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

As did Northwest Airlines.

https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19951001&slug=2144546

One other thing with the Northwest error was that they were instructed to expect vectors for runway 25L (at Brussels) which was the same as the expected runway in use at Frankfurt. They initially failed to capture the ILS (having set the frequency for 25L at FRA) and requested confirmation from (Brussels) ATC of the ILS frequency. What was very odd from the ATC perspective was that Northwest did not operate into Brussels. One can only suppose that ATC thought it was a planned company diversion.