Those wacky commercial pilots

[Goober McTuber]

Passengers on a British Airways flight from London's City Airport to Dusseldorf in Germany were met with a surprise Monday morning when their plane touched down -- in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.

The error was down to an incorrectly filed flight plan, leading both the pilot and cabin crew to believe the flight was bound for Edinburgh.

The flight was operated by German leasing company WDL Aviation on behalf of the British Airways subsidiary airline BA CityFlyer. The incorrect flight plan was filed at WDL Aviation's offices in Germany.

Piotr Pomienski, a student at Imperial College London, told CNN his girlfriend Zsófia Szabó was on the plane that landed in Edinburgh by mistake. "I saw on Flightradar that the flight was flying north instead of south, but I assumed it was a system error of some sort. That is until she wrote to me that they're in Edinburgh."

Szabó told CNN she realized something wasn't right when she saw mountains outside the plane, instead of the "usual German industrial landscape."

"When we started descending and I saw some taller hills/mountains, I did think that this isn't how Eastern Netherlands/Western Germany should look like but I assumed we took some small detour," she said. "Then my colleague sitting across the aisle from me told me to check Google Maps -- and it showed us being around Carlisle."

"The information then spread around quite quickly. Everyone started asking everyone else where they were going -- everyone was for Dusseldorf."

"When we landed there was a bit of a hilarious moment when the flight attendant asked for a show of hands for the people going to Dusseldorf, which turned out to be everyone," she said.

The captain subsequently apologized to the passengers, telling them the plane would refuel before heading to Germany.

"Most of us found this situation quite funny," Szabó said. "People were on phone calls trying to convince everyone that they've arrived in the wrong city."

Another passenger on the flight, Son Tran, told CNN: "Most passengers sleep or work through this flight so no one really noticed we were not flying over the Channel. We only realized we are in Scotland once we descended on approach and asked the crew."

In a statement, a spokesperson for British Airways said the airline was working with WDL Aviation "to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed."

"We have apologized to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually," the spokesperson said.

WDL Aviation said in a statement: "We are working closely with the authorities to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up of flight schedules could occur. At no time has the safety of passengers been compromised. We flew the passengers on the flight with number BA3271 to Dusseldorf after the involuntary stopover in Edinburgh."

[Left Seater]

I am honestly surprised this doesn’t happen more often with regional airlines.

[Diego in Seattle]

It happened a few years ago when a commercial jet landed at an AFB instead of the civilian airport in Wichita.

[Left Seater]

It happened a few years ago when a commercial jet landed at an AFB instead of the civilian airport in Wichita.

I don’t remember that one. I do remember the Boeing Dreamlifter was supposed to land at the AFB there but instead landed elsewhere.

Then there is the one where the Southwest plane landed at the wrong Branson airport.

Or the Continental plane that landed at an old Navy Field in Corpus Christi.

But all of those had some pilot error. This one the dispatcher and flight planning told the pilots they were going to Edinburgh. The followed the flight plan as did the ATC controllers. When they landed the pax let them know they screwed up. Pilots were prolly shocked when the pax mentioned something.

[Derron]

I am honestly surprised this doesn’t happen more often with regional airlines.

With the shortage of pilots these days, I would imagine these were some relatively low time younger pilots who believed and will believe everything that the I pad says and never doubt for a minute what they are seeing.

I am a bit weird. I was dead reckoning when I was 12 years old. I use a tablet and I still carry paper sectionals in my flight bag. Granted, I am not doing long cross country flights, but if the tablet takes a shit I can use the paper. I also have a back up hand radio, flashlight even though I don't night fly, and I take a coat even in the middle of summer.

[Rooster]

It happened a lot in Afghanistan back when the country was filled with COBs and FOBs. Helos would land and pax and pilots would stare at each other until someone spoke up. After eight hours of takeoff and landings they all start to look the same.

Mind you, not that it ever happened to me of course.

[smackaholic]

Don't pilots typically get on the intercom and tell everyone where they are going? Seems to be standard procedure on every flight I ever took.