Pilot Touches Down in the Wrong Country

A British Airways flight from London to Germany went to Scotland instead, a mistake that no one realized until the plane was on the ground. Passengers were shocked, the Scotsman reports, as was the crew. "The pilot said he had no idea how it had happened," a passenger tells the BBC. He evidently followed the flight plan he was given. The airline says it's working with WDL Aviation, a German company that operated the flight, to find why the wrong flight plan was filed—leading to an arrival 525 miles off course, per USA Today. Passengers first thought it was a joke, possibly because the crew asked passengers to put up their hands if they were expecting to go to Dusseldorf.

"While an interesting concept," another passenger tweeted, "I don’t think anyone on board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery." A student whose girlfriend was on the flight told CNN that she realized something was wrong when she saw mountains instead of the "usual German industrial landscape." The passengers' sense of humor was tested when the plane sat on the runway in Edinburgh for more than two hours awaiting permission to try again for Dusseldorf. "It became very frustrating. The toilets were blocked, and they ran out of snacks," a passenger told the BBC. "It was also really stuffy." (More British Airways stories.)