Once you’re on a plane, your fate is in the hands of the pilot. You’re going where they want to go. Unfortunately, the pilot of a recent British Airways flight from London to Düsseldorf, Germany, ended up in Scotland, 525 miles away from a whole plane full of people’s intended destination, all thanks to some shoddy paperwork.
The BBC reports passengers only realized the error when the clueless pilot announced to their confused passengers, “Welcome to Edinburgh.” The passengers thought it was a joke until the airline stewards asked by a show of hands who was expecting to go to Düsseldorf that day.
Every passenger raised their hand.
“The pilot said he had no idea how it had happened. He said it had never happened before and that the crew was trying to work out what we could do,” a passenger told BBC.
The flight plan was filed by WDL Aviation. The company is working with British Airways to find out what happened, the BBC reports. It appears a flight plan from the day before may have made its way on to the schedule for the next day.
British Airways is contacting the customers that made the “involuntary stopover” in Edinburgh, though British Airways declined to comment on how many travelers were affected by the mistake.