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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Hilary Mitchell

Confusion as pilot 'gets lost' and lands at Edinburgh Airport instead of Düsseldorf

A plane operated by WDL Aviation on behalf of British Airways heading for Düsseldorf in Germany made an unscheduled arrival in Edinburgh after the pilot got 'lost'.

The flight set off from London City airport at 7.47am and was supposed to head east to Germany, but flew north to Edinburgh instead, where it landed at around 9am.

Passengers took to Twitter to complain about the diversion, which was due to the operators giving the pilot and crew an incorrect flight path.

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A frequent flyer named Son Tran tweeted BA to ask:

"Can you please explain how can my morning flight taking off from LCY to Düsseldorf land in Edinburgh? While an interesting concept, I don't think anyone on board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery... #BA3271 "

Mr Tran then followed up his first tweet with more information about the flight:

"This feels like an honest mistake rather than a diversion. The crew was convinced of the Edinburgh flight path from the get-go..."

The plane then set off from Edinburgh at 10.30am on its second attempt to reach Düsseldorf.

British Airways told Edinburgh Live:

"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."

A spokesperson for Edinburgh Airport said:

“We’re a welcoming airport that is always happy to greet visitors from all over the world to our fantastic city, but this was a surprise for us as well as them!

“We were happy to work with the various teams across the airport to help make the trip to Edinburgh a pleasurable, albeit short, one.”

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