Ended up at the wrong destination
 

A coworker of mine was telling me that he went to Wyoming while working as a contractor for another company I think he flew CO from IAH-DEN and then transfered to a prop to Wyoming. He said that when he and his partner got their boarging passes scanned, then accidently got on the wrong bus (they did not know this at the time) to the prop plane. He also said that they were not paying attenting when the "conformation announcement" was made. Thus they ended up at the wrong airport.

I am surprised that this could even happen, especially after 911. I guess the chances are slim as what are the odds that they would not be taking seats of someone else that was suppose to be on the flight. At any rate, has anyone ever heard of such a story? Is there any rules that the FO needs to verify the maifest with the seat (in this case, the seats would have been empty?) :confused:

I believe the FA’s usually do a head count to make sure it matches up with the amount of people listed on the manifest that the GA hand them.

I wonder if that is a requirnment for the FA

It's happened a few times:

Sydney vs. Sydney
Oakland vs. Auckland

that time article from 1985 was great -"They talk funny" :p

Once on an F9 flight I was on, the plane returned to the gate after starting the taxi, because a pax heard the FA's 'flight XXX to ABQ' announcement, and realized she was on the wrong plane. After some consultation, they decided to return to the gate and let her off the plane.

I've also seen pax board the wrong flight on NW twice--someone on the NW board said that the NW barcode had info on the pax and the seat number, but not the flight number, so as long as their seat wasn't already occupied, it wouldn't throw a flag if someone was getting on the wrong plane.

All three of these incidents were 'post 9/11'.

I've never seen a wrong-plane incident at SLC, but the DL connection flights operate out of a concourse where the gates are all in a central waiting area. When your BP is scanned, the GA tells you a 'door number', and you walk down the terminal until you get to your door (you then board via stairs/ramps). Nobody rechecks your BP to make sure you went to the correct door, so it would seem like lots of opportunities for mishaps.

A few years back a woman going CLE-ROC was in my seat on the CLE-SYR flight. Good thing for her I showed up.

I was thinking of CLE's D concourse when I read the post by clarence5ybr. On the prop planes out of CLE's D gates, you go down the stairs and follow a colored trail to the door leading you outside to your plane. I've often wondered how many times people have been on the wrong plane there.

Well I am color blind, so using colors are not the best for me. Even tough I am color blind, I have never been fouled up in CLE with the props. I throughly make sure I am getting to the right aircraft when walking through the corded color coded maze.

Once did it on DL. ATL-FLL, got on the ATL-MIA flight. The gates were next to each other, and I had flown ATL-MIA weeks in a row, figured FLL would shake up things... and walked right to the usual gate, agent, and plane. Talked DL into an inter-airport shuttle (hey, they DID scan the boarding pass, and did let me board).

Slightly different story, had a friend who was a noob flyer. Was on WN and going to Chicago connecting in LAS. Got to LAS and was talking with FA who said 'oh we are going to Chicago too, just stay here.' So he did. Made it to ABQ before the GA there found out what was going on. Finally had to go to ELP before getting to MDW. Guess the FA was a noob too.

What idiot designed the software not to reconcile the actual boarding flight number with the passenger boarding pass? :mad:

I did it several years ago in the CVG commuter terminal when I flew Delta a bunch. It had been a long week, and it was late Friday evening, and I turned left instead of right out of the long corridor. I just wasn't paying attention.

I caught it at the destination check announcement, and felt really stupid. They had to get my gate check off. The FA said it happened about 3X per day in CVG at that time.

I still made the correct flight, walked across the tunnel.

I knew a guy who was coming as a foreign student to rochester NY but the travel agent booked him to rochester MN

I wonder if some people trying to go to Portland maine end up in oregon instead or vice versa

Not something I want to admit, being a frequent traveler and all, but I got on the wrong flight one time. Here's the story: Going from IAH-LGA, I had walked up to the gate about 40 minutes prior to scheduled departure. I was surprised to see the jetway door open and a line of people moving through. The sign above the door had the LGA flight number listed. I figured everybody was rushing on board since that was always a full flight with people fighting for overhead space. I showed my boarding pass and hurried down the jetway onto the plane. Just as I was about to sit, an FA handed me an immigration card. "Where is this plane going?" I asked. "Tegucigalpa," was the answer. I left the same way I came in.

Apparently everybody was in a rush since the TGU flight was delayed, but the gate agents had already changed the signs to the LGA flight. I'm sure there were speaker announcements that I must have missed since I was not waiting at the gate. Nonetheless, I'm not sure how I was allowed to make it all the way through the gate without a boarding pass or passport for that international flight. I'm glad I didn't wake up in TGU without my passport!