BA lands at WRONG airport - Edinburgh instead of Dusseldorf

[fox niner]

So what happened next? Did they eventually take off again and fly to dusseldorf?

[Espada III]

Yes

Young lady passenger on Radio 4 last night said it was an early flight, no announcement of destination (or everyone was already asleep) and the only time she realised something was wrong was when they saw hills as they came into land.

[KelvinD]

I have had 2 incidents in which confusion reigned for a few minutes.
The first relates to the comments about how the passengers didn't notice the Channel hadn't appeared along the route and was on an RAF Argosy, flying from Aden to Francistown. Having left Nairobi, I happened to look out of a window (not easy as we didn't have seats, only the parallel bars and nets so was back to the window). I couldn't help noticing there was water below us and I could see a coast line some way from us to the East. I had figured out that, as we were flying more or less North to South, the coast should have been to our West. Then I discovered how big Lake Nyasa was!
The second was on a BA777 going from London to Kuwait. Everything was going swimmingly and we taxied toward our departure. The Captain came on the PA and announced "We shall shortly be taking off toward New York.." A lot of heads bobbed up, necks swivelled as people looked at their mates in surprise. "New York? Bugger New York! I am going to Kuwait" etc. The Captain then continued with his announcement telling us how will be turning left shortly after take off, when we get to Ascot. From there we will travel toward Kempton Park, then Epsom and on to Canterbury where we will cross the coast. The drinks trolley was around very soon after take off and I ordered a G & T from the chap with the cart. A voice came from behind my left shoulder, saying "I will serve this gentleman. A G & T was it sir?" I turned and found I was being served by the Captain! It transpired he was very close to retirement and was very keen on horse racing!

[Joe le Taxi]

Of course the potential is greater in an ad hoc charter operation, where a destination might be communicated verbally eg the biz jet crew who flew their client to Palma, when he wanted to go to Parma.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by Impress to inflate

Hang on, hang on.......when I board a flight, I have to show my boarding card to the cabin crew at the main door to prove I'm entitled to be ON THAT FLIGHT,

Hang on further ... BA Cityflyer gave that procedure up about 18 months ago. I didn't particularly see why, probably because some pax whined they had to show their BC twice in two minutes.

relates to the comments about how the passengers didn't notice the Channel hadn't appeared along the route

It's only us lot who still have an interest in looking out of the window. Many pax nowadays can't even see as far ahead as the cabin crew demo'ing all the safety kit.

Originally Posted by CYTN

Was the pilot Rudolph Hess's Grandson

Best comment in the thread

[RevMan2]

Happens in the best of families...
https://youmustbefromaway.com/2008/0...lic-transport/

[BEA 71]

Now we have almost five pages of funny comments and of boy scout stories.
Could we now resume to facts, please !

[bArt2]

Originally Posted by MFC_Fly

For some reason the pilots were under the impression they were to fly to Edinburgh (given or picked up the wrong flight details), hence why they planned for, filed a FP to, and subsequently flew to Edinburgh.

The days when the flight crew plan, and file a flight plan are long gone. These days with minimum rest and maximum flight duty there these things are done for you. You receive flight plans, Notams, Weather and so on.

I can not imagine they received a flight plan for Dusseldorf if they ended up in Edingburgh.

[mike current]

Originally Posted by pattern_is_full

Some assumptions here that would never have crossed my mind:

- that ATC for a terminal area with, what, 2000+ movements a day, would associate every single flight number with a specific destination (beyond what's filed). I mean, outside of BAW001 or something equally obvious. I'd bow to input from one of our ATC friends, of course.

Also, around this time of the year (although it's usually after the clocks change) all the flight numbers change. And even if the controller thought for a second, hang on that flight number is odd... you see a different carrier operating it, the flight plan looks normal, everything looks fine and don't think much else of it.

I was also thinking it might have seemed strange to have 2 Edinburgh flights departing at short interval, but then again, it's Monday morning, ATC have no idea of what plans the airlines have with regards to positioning, etc. All sorts of unusual movements happen all the time!

[yanrair]

Did the pilots fly to the wrong airport, or did the passengers do so?
I remember on Big Airways on the way to HKG we found passengers for Buenos Aires. They had heard announcements two hour into flight about HKG weather and did not speak much English. Landed HKG and they are wined and dined and sent off to B Aires. Because they were on hols they enjoyed the HKG free experience. You cannot get much further from HKG than Buenos Aires - 12000 miles I think.

Thinking about the EDI flight. Was it not the same thing? The crew and plane and flight plan and everything else was going to EDI, Just not the passengers? Yes, how were the boarding passes etc not spotted etc etc etc. That will come out no doubt. And there are security implications too.
And, what happened to the real EDI passengers - did they end up in DUS? Haven't hear what happened to them. Presumably there was an EDI departure around the same time a DUS departure which is where the mix up occurred?, No idea and like someone else, I am looking forward to the explanation with interest! I really do hope it is honest.

As for boy scout stories mentioned above, a lot of what you read here is just that, boy scout stuff at this stage of an event. Nobody knows so lots of speculation, and anecdotes like mine above. Nothing wrong with that. Nobody died. And it was not unsafe. Just a complete screw-up. Not what you want to hear about airline operations though because the passengers lose faith in the airline business which is sad since you cannot be anywhere a safer than in a civil airliner operated by a good airline. And in 2017 - any airline. No fatalities in 2017. So ending up in the wrong airport doesn't really demand too much publicity except for the fun of it.
Cheers
Y

[Reverserbucket]

So the gate staff will have been checking/scanning for DUS, but the crew planning for EDI ��*♀️

Interesting point. Consequences of a domestic or CTA arrival at an international destination might have been interesting if they had disembarked as not all would likely have had passports.

I was a passenger recently on a flight that returned to LHR following loss of a hydraulic system. Right turn East reaching Dover rather than continuing ahead to the Belgian coast after about 20 minutes. Capt gave a PA explaining there was a technical issue which he would prefer to return to base with (contaminated destination runway) and C/C prepared cabin for arrival having just wheeled out the carts to commence food service. It became apparent that a number of my fellow passengers didn't realise we turned back until we touched down at LHR judging by the comments I could hear once they'd removed their personal headphones.

[Impress to inflate]

OK, what did it say on the boarding screen at the Gate ? The crew would have walked passed the screen with the destination if the a/c was at the gate (but not if it was at a remote spot).

Do BA still have the "in-flight map" displayed in the cabin ? For many years they did with route, altitude, ground speed and eta at the destination.

[matthew_w100]

How long before somebody official explains what actually *did* happen? It can't take more than a few moments for them to work it out.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by yanrair

And, what happened to the real EDI passengers - did they end up in DUS? Haven't hear what happened to them. Presumably there was an EDI departure around the same time a DUS departure which is where the mix up occurred?, No idea and like someone else, I am looking forward to the explanation with interest!

It's pretty clear from the thread so far that the passengers boarded a flight that was being displayed as the BA3271 07:30 LCY-DUS, with appropriate boarding passes, and were expecting to land there (until they didn't).

I haven't seen any suggestion that there was confusion with the scheduled LCY-EDI flight, which had departed 30 minutes previously and arrived at Edinburgh on time, presumably full of passengers who actually wanted to go to Scotland.

[malanda]

Were they bussed to a remote stand? I've often wondered if there are any checks to ensure the driver goes to the right aircraft.

[airspeed75]

People worrying about fuel and northerly SIDs etc are all going down the wrong path here.

This crew will have had the mindset of going to EDI from the moment they entered that crew room, there is no way they planned, fuelled, set up the FMS and then briefed a flight to DUS only to then take off and fly to EDI being on a northerly SID etc. I cannot comprehend this happening.

It was likely to be a miscommunication between BACF and WDL, in that they weren't properly informed of the routes they should have been flying on the day in question.

Some airlines do not check boarding passes for a domestic flight, a possible hole in the cheese lining up.

Nor do they do a passenger announcement in a country who's language they do not comfortably speak.

[Midland 331]

Originally Posted by malanda

Were they bussed to a remote stand? I've often wondered if there are any checks to ensure the driver goes to the right aircraft.

:-)

In the days of November stands at LHR I seem to recall having to shout up the steps to the cabin crew "Teesside?" in the manner of day trip punters at Skegness bus station on a bank holiday (I imagine..).

[Super VC-10]

Originally Posted by yanrair

Nobody died. And it was not unsafe. Just a complete screw-up. Not what you want to hear about airline operations though because the passengers lose faith in the airline business which is sad since you cannot be anywhere a safer than in a civil airliner operated by a good airline. And in 2017 - any airline. No fatalities in 2017. So ending up in the wrong airport doesn't really demand too much publicity except for the fun of it.
Cheers
Y

Westwind Aviation Flight 280 crashed on 13 December, a passenger was killed.

[Doug E Style]

Originally Posted by airspeed75

People worrying about fuel and northerly SIDs etc are all going down the wrong path here.

This crew will have had the mindset of going to EDI from the moment they entered that crew room, there is no way they planned, fuelled, set up the FMS and then briefed a flight to DUS only to then take off and fly to EDI being on a northerly SID etc. I cannot comprehend this happening.

It was likely to be a miscommunication between BACF and WDL, in that they weren't properly informed of the routes they should have been flying on the day in question.

Some airlines do not check boarding passes for a domestic flight, a possible hole in the cheese lining up.

Nor do they do a passenger announcement in a country who's language they do not comfortably speak.

Spot on, airspeed75. Now everyone can just calm down.

[Dave Gittins]

My sad habit of taking my iPad and SkyDemon with me (or Foreflight if it's US bound) would have pretty quickly had me asking the CC WIHIH ?

Seems pretty obvious that the CC thought they were going to DUS and the flight deck to EDI [which they went to frequently so no surprise to them].

An NO they don't check the boarding passes other than at the gate and in this case I doubt it would have mattered as they matched what the CC thought was going to happen.

And NO they don't have IFE or seat back moving maps on BA short haul.