How did the airline passenger with a ticket for Dublin board a flight to Berlin? There’s no punch line I’m afraid; especially not for the confused and embarrassed passenger who was moments away from taking an impromptu flight to the German capital earlier last month.
Concerned passengers and cabin crew
It was a half empty lunchtime flight. The overhead lockers were closed, seat belts buckled and in-flight magazines open, when a member of the budget airline’s cabin crew announced.
Please can the passenger who is flying to Dublin make themselves known? I repeat, can the passenger with a ticket for Dublin make themselves known. This flight is for Berlin.
Cue concerned and bemused expressions on the faces of everyone around me, including the crew member who helped the red-faced misplaced passenger retrieve their hand luggage and disembark the plane.
Boarding gate staff should prevent mistakes and security risks
The question on everyone’s lips was how someone could get through the Berlin flight gate and onto the plane with a boarding pass for a completely different destination and flight number.
It’s easy to imagine joining the wrong queue at the UK airport in question, where the flight gates lead off open-plan, collective departure lounges. But isn’t it reasonable to expect airline staff on the boarding gate to be passengers’ last line of defence against this kind of mistake and, more seriously, against deliberate violations of airport security?
Do reports of mistakes involving budget airlines make you more reluctant to fly with them, or to worry more when you do?
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David Whitley | 1 February, 2011 at 10:48 am
I can beat that. In 2002, I was flying from Bundaberg on the East Coast of Australia to Sydney via Brisbane. I was about to start a new job that would keep me in the country and change my life.
I ended up landing on Lady Elliot Island in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, stranded until the afternoon flight back. Through a series of improbable coincidences (a passenger called Whitney hadn’t shown up; I heard it as Whitley when the name was called), I’d got on a tourist prop plane instead of my scheduled flight to Brisbane… I had to call my new boss and explain why I’d not be turning up for my first day at work.
Nick | 1 February, 2011 at 11:43 am
The answer to this is simple, when you board a plane we have all experienced how fast the boarding cards are collected.
There are then people to one side checking the cards.. (Or on smaller flights these checks are done after). It is these people that give the plane the go, not the people who collect them. So while it may seem strange in this case the system worked and the plane was not allowed to takeoff till the incorrect person was removed.
If you ever watched any airport based UK TV documentary you will have seen the staff recount due to problem like this. You will also see there is no passengers around and that they have all boarded.
I would still be more worried about a missing person with the bag on board than about a person who boarded the incorrect flight.
Hal Peat | 1 February, 2011 at 3:29 pm
I’m not sure of the actual screening procedures in Britain nowadays that would allow for that kind of error to happen. You’d think the final check at the boarding gate when they go through the motions of looking at your boarding pass would serve as an effective enough screen. Apparently not, along with someone being deaf enough not to understand the difference between Berlin and Dublin. He was probably on his mobile and not minding the boarding announcement.
It does remind me of a similar situation many years ago in kinder gentler times in the 80s when I used to fly Air New Zealand on its London-Los Angeles route. The flight would then continue onward from L.A. to Auckland, NZ. Anyway, next day I read in my local L.A. newspaper that after I’d disembarked, another passenger had misunderstood the call for the reboarding to mean “This flight is now reboarding for Oakland” – which is where he wanted to fly onward to in northern Calif. – instead of “This flight is now reboarding for Auckland.” In describing to the media what happened next, he said that at first he thought the large body of water beneath him was Lake Arrowhead. Duh. About an hour later and still seeing no land, it occurred to him it might be way out in the Pacific. I think someone actually offered him a deal for the movie rights to that. But again that was kinder, gentler times,
Daniel | 1 February, 2011 at 3:58 pm
I never thought things like this can happen. If it were for some train or bus confusions, it would’ve seemed possible, but not in this case!
Emma | 1 February, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I was flying back to Liverpool from Dublin with Aer Lingus about 5-6 years ago. As we were fastening our seat belts a couple of girls walked down the aisle asking other passengers if they were on the plane for Birmingham!!
When they realised the plane was going to Liverpool they had to get off and go back into the airport!
You expect to see this on a bus or a train, but on a plane?!
Surely tickets should be checked more thoroughly when flying internationally???
Nick | 2 February, 2011 at 10:04 am
Emma
Please remember flights in the British Isles are not international, no matter which of the 8 countries your flying to. London to Manchester / Glasgow / Dublin or anywhere else in the British Isles.
Rob | 3 February, 2011 at 8:04 pm
I saw 6 on the wrong flight a few years ago at Stansted. Ryanair flights to Malmo and Oslo were boarding on gates next to each other and when one opened, lots a Scandinavians just made a dash for the plane.
Not sure how they got past the people checking tickets but they did.
Llmw | 7 February, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Just saw it happen on my flight from DCA to JFK….they yelled down the jetway, could the couple going to Boston please come back as this was not their flight…so just before they got on the airplane…this was w/American.
Ryan | 9 February, 2011 at 9:06 am
I guess it all comes down to human error as usual. Maybe bored poorly paid airline employees try to cut corners when doing their jobs.
In this world nothing is impossible!
Jamie | 10 February, 2011 at 8:27 pm
I think it is mad that such incident occur. Surely with the requirement for safety on air craft at this present time, such things should not be allowed to happen!!
Jack Norell | 14 February, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Just simple human error, the gate staff misread the boarding pass.
Wondering though, you mention air safety in the post, I can’t see how this would affect that? If the person getting on board was intending to do something nasty, does it matter if it’s the Dublin or Berlin flight going down?
Security is dealt with far earlier than the boarding gate (well, except if you’re boarding a flight for the U.S. or Israel, that is).
Nancy Heltman | 19 February, 2011 at 2:15 am
Happened to me a couple of years ago. It was one of those commuter airlines that all leave from one area. Several of us got on the wrong plane and didn’t figure it out until we heard the pilot say where the plane was heading.
John Twohig | 22 February, 2011 at 3:50 pm
As usual the Air Line is at fault…. sorry but can you explain how the person with the ticket did not know what flight he/she was boarding or was it a case of not knowing where he/she lived. I have seen this before but really it is the passengers fault and nobody else. JT
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13 responses to “Passenger boards on wrong flight: How can this happen?”