British Airways jet flies to wrong city, lands in Scotland instead of Germany

[LONDON] British Airways has been forced to apologise after a flight from London to Dusseldorf landed more than 965km away in Edinburgh by mistake.

The detour happened after a sub-contracted crew used an incorrect flight plan and set off from London City airport for the Scottish capital instead of setting course for the Rhine.

British Airways said the aircraft - a 96-seat BAe-146 regional jet - was operated by German charter firm WDL Aviation on behalf of BA CityFlyer. The crew and aircraft were sub-contracted from WDL under an arrangement known as a "wet lease".

"We are working with WDL Aviation, who operated this flight on behalf of British Airways, to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed," BA said in a statement.

"We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually."

WDL Aviation said it had flown the passengers on to Dusseldorf after their unscheduled Scottish stopover.

"We are working closely with the authorities to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up of flight schedules could occur," it said in a statement.

WDL is owned by Berlin-based logistics firm Zeitfracht Group.

REUTERS