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BA flight (op WDL Aviation) lands in Edinburgh instead of Dusseldorf by mistake

BA flight (op WDL Aviation) lands in Edinburgh instead of Dusseldorf by mistake

Old Mar 25, 2019, 12:42 pm
  #76  
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: London
Programs: BAEC 1991
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A long time ago (pre 9/11) I was flying VA LHR-LAX almost at the pointy end.

Deeply into my spreadsheet when I noticed that the sunlight kept on interfering with my screen on a regular but infrequent basis. Turned out we were circling Iceland dumping fuel prior to ejecting a miscreant. Took me at least 15 mins to press the call button.....
Blackheathflyer is offline  
Old Mar 25, 2019, 12:44 pm
  #77  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Originally Posted by Scotflyer80

The WDL lease is going to be a expensive one for BACF. The same aircraft was scheduled to operate another 3 flights for BACF today before returning to WDLs CGN base.

Passengers booked on all 3 of these flightsare now also going to be entitled to compensation. The flights affected are:
I'm sure that BA will come up with something creative in order not to pay compensation. Let's wait and see what it is.
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 12:51 pm
  #78  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Originally Posted by nd100
The 3-3 seating configuration is incredibly cramped (BA used to have 2-3 in economy when it operated this type).
While I cannot speak for the days when BA had actual BAe146s, the ARJ100s they operated for many years from LCY were certainly 3-3 seating, which is why everyone used to say only BA had RJ110s
nancypants likes this.
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 12:58 pm
  #79  
 
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Originally Posted by Cw novice
Further quotes on Beeb:

"The pilot then asked passengers to raise their hands if they wanted to go to Dusseldorf."

"Everyone raised their hands."

"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."

The fact that he had to ask if the passengers still wanted to go to Dusseldorf.....
Flybe quoted this one liner and had two emojis of raised hands in a retweeted CNN tweet trying to be funny but it backfired just a tad with some savage responses..

interestingly the next LCY-DUS rotations due to be operated by the same aircraft also delayed 3+ hours. Interestingly BA says it will contact affected customers but in cases such as these the airlines should automatically provide EU261 compensation rather than rely on the fact that a lot might nott know about it and or wont claim.
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 12:59 pm
  #80  
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Seattle, Wash. USA
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I was sitting at LCY this afternoon waiting for my flight to TXL, idly wondering why the 1105 to DUS was shown as running over three hours late.
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 1:47 pm
  #81  
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
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What better stunt to launch the BA 100% extra miles/Avios promotion than actually doing it!
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 1:48 pm
  #82  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Originally Posted by The _Banking_Scot
Hi,

It will be reported on Reporting Scotland at 625pm tonight

Regards

TBS
It was actually shown on Reporting Dusseldorf.........
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 1:51 pm
  #83  
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
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Originally Posted by mec72
I'm sure that BA will come up with something creative in order not to pay compensation. Let's wait and see what it is.
From the report I heard, it sounded like the flight plan had been filed by WDL Aviation, so I'd have thought BA would pass any losses on to them, unless they've been careless with their contracting...
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 2:07 pm
  #84  
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Tees Valley, UK
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I ended up on a WDL 146 during a daft weekend trip across France, they'd been brought in to operate a Strasbourg to Toulouse for Hop! - they'd already sent the scheduled Jota ARJ sub out on another flight as they're stupidly short of crew. I found them to be perfectly professional despite the obviously elderly 146 (I had D-AWUE).
This is amusing given that it all ended safely - however if airlines (BA are indeed part of this group) checked boarding passes at the door upon boarding they'd pick up on any mistakes like this surely. It would be interesting to know whether the screw up was in BA ops or WDL ops but I suspect we'll never find out.
If you look at what they covered yesterday it was a DUS-LCY-EDI-LCY-DUS shift, so it's entirely possible that they'd been given a similar schedule for today, or maybe assumed that was what they were operating? Like I say I doubt we'll ever find out.
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 2:14 pm
  #85  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
At LCY the crew - flight and cabin - typically don't board from the passenger gate, and certainly not in a case where the aircraft started in DUS before going to LCY. At LHR and LGW it would be more normal for the crew to board at the gate, but in many cases the overhead signs would not at that point give the destination.

Still however you look at it, this was one big boo-boo.
At LCY crews almost always board from passenger gates, the exception being if transferring directly from one aircraft to another in which case they might stay on the ramp. The destination is usually displayed by the time crews reach the gate however in this case the aircraft started its day in Dsseldorf so the crew wouldnt have left the aircraft at LCY.

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Old Mar 25, 2019, 2:28 pm
  #86  
 
Join Date: May 2017
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Originally Posted by mec72
I'm sure that BA will come up with something creative in order not to pay compensation. Let's wait and see what it is.
BA probably asks you to complain to BACF or WDL Aviation instead, and BACF and WDL Aviation point at each other.

There was a similar incident last year. Nextjet had two flights from Sundsvall (SDL), one to Gothenburg (GOT) and one to Lule (LLE), but they had to cancel one of the flights. The passengers going to GOT boarded the flight and the flight went to LLE, where they ended up stuck over the night. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/va...amnade-i-lulea
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 2:36 pm
  #87  
 
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Were boarding passes and bags tagged to DUS? Would BA produce a passenger information list / cargo manifest for the crew and if so would that state the destination or just the flight number?

Does catering state the destination on those stickers?

Who handles WDL in Edi? Were ground staff expecting the flight?

So many questions!
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 2:38 pm
  #88  
 
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Isn't there normally an announcement on board about how how flight to XXX today will take X hours/minutes?

Granted the two are a similar time but presumably there were some frequent flyers on board and I certainly (have) know(n) the expected flight time on a couple of routes. Even if they didn't say "our expected flight time to Edinburgh today will be" ...

My first thought on hearing this was EC261 as mentioned upthread. The question is how many of the pax know to claim for it , on this and the other affected flights as a result of this. Extraordinary circumstances doesn't cover BA filing the wrong flight plan, or whatever the reason turns out to be. Grounding of an entire jet type or a Icelanic volcano perhaps, flying to the wrong city for no good reason? Nope.

If BA tries to say no, I can see a class action.
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 2:41 pm
  #89  
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
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Originally Posted by Cw novice
Somewhat surprised that the passengers would only have realised on landing. Turning right instead of left or vice versa after takeoff might have been a giveaway. As would imagine would be the moving map if there was one.

Also would BA operations not have spotted the plane going completely the wrong way and attempted to contact the pilot.
I believe this flight does not have moving map. Even with a moving map, on one of my previous flight on AA from JFK-LAX, we apparently flew over New Orleans, and at that point I really thought I made a wrong flight. After some research I found out that my flight has taken an unusual route because heavy thunderstorm around Central US area.
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Old Mar 25, 2019, 3:20 pm
  #90  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Originally Posted by happeemonkee
My bolding

I was wondering about this too. Has anyone been on these WDL operated BA flights before and if so is it the SOP for the Captain/FO to chat to the passengers about weather etc at destination before takeoff like every BA operated flight I've been on? I'm sure the error would have been picked up then if it was the case.
Ive been on a WDL op flight a few years ago to LCY. I admit BA captains can tend to the verbose at times but on WDL the communication from the flight deck was brief. On boarding the captain did confirm the destination (LCY) only to tell us how difficult a landing it is. On performing a touch-and-go go around at LCY on a beautifully clear and calm day, after stabilising the plane back into the holding pattern the sole announcement from the flight deck was Were going to try that again, followed by an explanatory announcement from the purser, Captain is going around. One of the few occasions I genuinely feared for my safety in flight and would never board one of their flights again. Ever.
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