Surley they must have wandered onto the wrong aircraft..?

From - NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST.. story "IT'S PLANE CRAZY"

12:00 - 31 August 2006
Easyjet is investigating after a Notts family got on the wrong plane and almost ended up 700 miles from their holiday destination.

Angela Brown, her partner and son cleared two boarding pass checks as they tried to catch a flight from Nottingham East Midlands Airport to Alicante, Spain.

But despite being sent through by airline staff, they got on a flight bound for Rome.

Mrs Brown, who was with partner John Handley, 45, and seven-year-old son Ryan Thexton-Brown, said: "We checked the departures board which told us to go to gate one but the next thing that came over the tannoy we thought said to go to gate three.

"It said Rome above the gate but we got in the queue. We gave our boarding passes in and the man just let us through and marked us off on a piece of paper.

"We handed our passes in on the flight too and they didn't query it."

Recalling what happened on Sunday, July 30, Mrs Brown, 42, a reception supervisor from Cotgrave, said: "The next thing we heard was the captain saying the flight for Rome would be leaving in ten minutes.

"My partner asked if the flight was for Alicante and they said no.

"Luckily our flight was delayed by 25 minutes so we just walked across the runway and got it."

Now they are considering not using the airline again.

Mrs Brown added: "If this can happen to us, and we did it by accident, then who knows what kind of people could board a flight."

The flight to Alicante was delayed because the aircraft had to wait to be allocated a stand - a parking bay.

A spokeswoman from Easyjet said: "The delay in allocating a stand added to the confusion over where the passengers went to, and caused the flight delay."

She explained the Alicante flight was still boarding so staff would not have been aware any passengers were missing.

She added: "The passengers went though security checks which found them to be Easyjet passengers with valid passports and boarding passes.

"They were entitled to get on to an Easyjet flight.

"The checks would have found any dangerous items had they been carrying any, but obviously they were not.

"They would have gone through the security checks whichever Easyjet flight they were getting on, so security has not been breached.

"This was an operational issue, not a security issue. We are launching an investigation."

James Fremantle, spokesman for the Air Transport Users Council, said they had received a surprising number of similar complaints.

"It would be good customer service for airlines to check passengers are on the correct flight," he said.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said airlines, especially for international flights, should check the person getting on the plane is the same as the passport holder and on the correct flight, but said security checks would have been completed sufficiently.

Says it all really. If I were flying to Paris, would I go to the Gate for Madrid?

But why didnt the gate staff pick up on the fact that the pax were NOT going to Rome? Have things gotten so low cost that the boarding passes dont have destinations/flight numbers printed on them?
Shouldnt have been allowed to happen.

I don't know you well enough to answer that one, Flash8.

what dopey idiots LCC's attract. When does Rome on a sign mean the flight goes to Alicante.

When will people finally accept responsibility for their own stupidity?

If gate staff are expected to be perfect reading b.passes then passengers can expect longer queues, slower boarding and more delays. The compromise has to be made, and the obvious backstop is the on board headcount on both flights which would have highlighted the error.

No drama. Just supremely stupid passengers.

I've had that with ezy at GVA. This time, check in - our flight marked desk 20, actually checking in desk 30. Nearly missed the last service of the day & only got on by flashing my airside badge at the check in agent - not their fault of course, but wrong info, small mistake, bigger consequences.

EasyJet boarding passes don't (or they didn't when I flew them regularly a few years back) have specific destinations on them. They're recyclable, as you hand them back in at the gate, if I recall.

Indeed. I hate flying LCCs (will avoid at almost any expense!). People that stupid shouldn't really be allowed to leave the country.

On the topic of confusing boarding gate designs, I think Recife (REC) in Brazil has to take the cake. Once you complete boarding pass check, there's a corridor which leads you to a choice of several sleaves (to assorted destinations) with almost no signage!

Great, next time I buy a ticket, I wont bother where its actually for, I'll just get the cheapest there is with EJ and take the 'plane to the destination I really want to travel to, after all I'll be entitled to get on an EJ flight....

"

So thats OK then, we were all safe.....

Yes, Pax were dumb to get on the wrong aircraft, but someone at EJ should have spotted it. As for the info board comments, with alot of the gate changes I have encountered, the info boards above a gate can often be wrong when this occurs at the last minute.

Regards, SD.

I remember once working at BHD and we had loaded the FlyBE 146 up tho is was in Air France colours, passengers came out,looked at it then wondered of to the Dash-8 in "British European" titles that had engineers working on its no.1 engine and still boarded it!!

Still quite funny though

OutOfSynch
'Course the legacy carriers never have anyone on board who hasn't been vetted first and found to be a member of MENSA...<sigh>
More amazingly insightful comments from the PPRuNe intelligentsia. You merely display your own ignorance with such pointless and vacuous comments.

crikey, i hope not!

If Ezy boarding passes still only have a boarding number (no flight number or destination info - as mentioned by GCC) then nothing would have been pickup up until boarding had been completed and the head count didn't tally.

And walking across a runway is not a security issue, good job nothing was landing!!!

You know, unless these folks were frequent flyers, then I can quite understand why they got mixed up. To those who rarely travel, airports are a complete unfathomable mystery.

What is worrying is the fact they passed two spearate checks of their boarding passes. Why do them if they are not important?

easyjet passes do have flight number and destination on them. The old recycled ones dissappeared some time ago. And I agree, the gate staff SHOULD have spotted it, but put yourself in their shoes...... 150 b.passes flashing past your eyes in a few mins means you are probably in the 'seeing what you expext to see' camp. Not any easy job (no pun).

Just like the poor security staff trying to stay focussed on a scanner screen for any length of time. I wouldnt do it for any amount of money, let alone their minimal wage.

And what was wrong with these particular dodo's asking 'Alicante?' as they passed the gate labelled Rome...? I think most people would have.

At EMA EZY checkin is done at self-service machines which print paper boarding passes with flight number, destination and boarding sequence.

I contest that it wasn't a security issue though. If not caught, there could have been a case of bags on one plane, passengers on another, and that as far as I know is still a no-no. I accept, however, that in all likelihood the error would have been detected on the final headcounts.

Andy

I don't believe some of the arrogant comments here.

As an FQTV I sometimes have to think quite carefully about where I'm going and I imagine that infrequent travellers get very confused.

At the end of the day, these people's money is as good as anyone elses and they should be treated with courtesy, not disdain.

The Dodos on this thread are people in the business who don't recognise the hand that feeds them.

I always emphasise to my crew during my pre-flight briefing that if they at any point in the day board passengers they MUST check the following on the boarding card:

• Date
• Destingation
• Flight Number

This situation is totally unacceptable and if one of my cabin crew colleagues did it on one of my flights, they would be in serious trouble.

Although, at least next time I have a pax complain about having to show a boarding pass WHILST ACTUALLY BOARDING AN AIRCRAFT, I will have a nice little story to tell them as to why it is done

I regularly fly with EZY, NCL-STN-NCL, and on numerous occasion have have had passengers at the boarding gate at Stansted, not only trying to board EZY flights to other desinations but also passengers on FR flights. People just don,t seem to listen to announcements and read departure board information.