A British Airways flight from London to Germany took off in the wrong direction and landed in Scotland, 525 miles away from its destination

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• A British Airways flight from London to Düsseldorf landed in Scotland instead of Germany.
• Passengers only realized they were in the wrong country when an announcement was made welcoming them to Edinburgh after the plane landed, the BBC reported.
• The airline said the diversion was an accident as paperwork for the flight, operated by German firm WDL Aviation, was filed incorrectly.
• WDL Aviation told Business Insider that it is working with authorities to investigate the "unfortunate mix-up."

A British Airways flight bound to Düsseldorf, Germany, from London, England, accidentally landed in Edinburgh, Scotland, instead: 525 miles away from where it should have been.

British Airways said in a statement to the Business Insider that the plane ended up in Edinburgh after the flight paperwork was submitted incorrectly.

Passengers only realized they were in the wrong country when an announcement was made welcoming them to Edinburgh after the plane landed, the BBC reported.

"We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually," British Airways’ statement said.

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German firm WDL Aviation ran the flight, which left London’s City Airport, for British Airways. British Airways said it was working with WDL to work out how the wrong flight plan was filed.

The flight has now landed at Düsseldorf International Airport, its original destination.

WDL Aviation told Business Insider: "We are working closely with the authorities to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up of flight schedules could occur."

"At no time has the safety of passengers been compromised." 

A passenger named Son Tran tweeted about the flight after it landed and asked for an explanation, describing it as a "mystery travel lottery."

He responded to British Airway’s official account after it said the flight was diverted, and said it felt like an "honest mistake rather than a diversion" at the time.

"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," Sophie Cooke, a passenger on the flight, told the BBC.

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See Also:

• The crashed Lion Air 737 Max had the same malfunction the day before, but crew figured out how to stop it. The information never made it to the next flight
• A New Zealand shooting survivor, who lost his brother in the attack, found out about the death by watching his killer’s livestream
• The New Zealand shooter attacked the 2nd mosque from a side door instead of the front, which let dozens of people escape, survivor says

Source: Business Insider – sbaker@businessinsider.com (Sinéad Baker)