Passengers on flight from London to Dusseldorf land in Edinburgh after paperwork mix-up
A man who boarded a flight in London which mistakenly landed 500 miles from its destination has told ITV News: "I'm not an aviation expert so I wasn't going to tell the pilot I knew a quicker way to Dusseldorf."
Passengers on board the BA3271 flight from London City Airport only realised they were landing in the Scottish capital, not the German industrial hub as expected, after a "welcome to Edinburgh" announcement was made.
Peter James-Hamiton was among the passengers on the flight. He said he looked out the window and noticed the plane was going a different direction to usual.
He recalled thinking it was strange but blamed it on being tired.
But his lack of flying skills prevented him from making the cockpit aware of the error.
London City Airport apologised to passengers and said the plane had ended up in Edinburgh as the crew had been given "an incorrect flight plan".
In a statement on Twitter, the airport said: "As pleasant as Edinburgh is this time of year, we’re sorry that passengers travelling to Dusseldorf on BA3271, operated by WDL Aviation, initially landed in the Scottish capital, rather than their intended destination. This was due to an incorrect flight plan submitted by WDL".
It is unclear how many passengers were on board the flight.
Sophie Cooke, 24, who was on the flight, told the BBC that passengers were asked to raise their hands if they still wanted to fly to Dusseldorf.
She said: "The pilot said he had no idea how it had happened."
The British Airways flight was operated by German company WDL Aviation as part of a leasing deal, which meant WDL pilots, cabin crew and plane would have been used.
British Airways said they were in contact with the German company to establish why the wrong paperwork had been submitted.
A spokesman for BA said they would be be handling the customer service for those on the aircraft.
A BA spokesman said: "We are working with WDL Aviation, who operated this flight on behalf of British Airways, to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed.
"We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually."
WDL Aviation stressed in a statement that passenger safety had not been jeopardised in the mix-up.
In a statement, WDL Aviation said: "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 Düsseldorf after the involuntary stopover in Edinburgh.”