Passengers boarding the wrong aeroplane and ending up in the wrong destination.

[Mojo]

easyJet no longer check boarding cards at the door, which is the last line of defence against people doing this - it otherwise only comes up if someone boards and finds someone in their seat. Obviously someone who was doing it deliberately wouldn't make a thing about that, they'd just move.

They still do check boarding passes at rogue airports; I had mine checked on boarding an Easyjet flight at Aqaba when I went there in 2023 [a winter only route they sadly dropped recently since the Israel - Hamas war]. The cabin crew implied it's their procedure at places effectively where they don't trust the ground staff.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Oct 2025 ==

Not quite the same but there was the famous case from 2017 where an All Nippon flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo turned back after four hours (so customers effectively had an 8 hour flight to nowhere) after a customer was found to be on the wrong flight. It later transpired that the ANA flight was a codeshare of United (with whom the customer should have been travelling), with the United flight departing an hour later.

 

[Airline Man]

There’s a security issue if someone travels on a flight they’re not booked on and checked in on and even more so if their bag is on a flight that the passenger isn’t on.

 

[Tester]

There’s a security issue if someone travels on a flight they’re not booked on and checked in on and even more so if their bag is on a flight that the passenger isn’t on.

Of course this can happen, albeit generally mitigated by the passenger not being in control of the situation.

In 2009 I flew from Detroit to Hong Kong via Tokyo. I made the connection in Tokyo but my bag didn't.

Complicated by the fact that I was flying to Taipei for work the next day, the airline staff in Hong Kong happily arranged to divert my bag directly from Tokyo to Taipei, and it was there for me when I arrived.

 

[edwin_m]

There’s a security issue if someone travels on a flight they’re not booked on and checked in on and even more so if their bag is on a flight that the passenger isn’t on.

Of course this can happen, albeit generally mitigated by the passenger not being in control of the situation.

Only really an issue if the potential terrorist has spotted a loophole in the system, so they can be confident of not being on board the same plane as their bag. It would be very unlikely for someone planning this sort of attack to stumble upon the possible but rare chance of it happening to them randomly.

 

[TravelDream]

Of course this can happen, albeit generally mitigated by the passenger not being in control of the situation.

Only really an issue if the potential terrorist has spotted a loophole in the system, so they can be confident of not being on board the same plane as their bag. It would be very unlikely for someone planning this sort of attack to stumble upon the possible but rare chance of it happening to them randomly.

Baggage that isn't accompanied by its passenger (like when you connect, but your bag doesn't) goes through additional screening.

 

[sheff1]

Baggage that isn't accompanied by its passenger (like when you connect, but your bag doesn't) goes through additional screening.

I had a journey where my luggage made the connection but I didn't because of the distance between gates and the need to go through border control. I assume the luggage was loaded before it became clear I wasn't on board. Does the luggage need to be taken back off the plane for this additional screening or can it be screened at the plane ?

 

[Mojo]

I had a journey where my luggage made the connection but I didn't because of the distance between gates and the need to go through border control. I assume the luggage was loaded before it became clear I wasn't on board. Does the luggage need to be taken back off the plane for this additional screening or can it be screened at the plane ?

I'm surprised - would have thought they would have taken it off, as what if someone deliberately missed the connection in order to get their dodgy bag on the plane?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I had a journey where my luggage made the connection but I didn't because of the distance between gates and the need to go through border control. I assume the luggage was loaded before it became clear I wasn't on board. Does the luggage need to be taken back off the plane for this additional screening or can it be screened at the plane ?

If this happens the luggage is meant to be removed. Planes are often delayed for this to take place.

One thing I have seen happen on Ryanair was a bag being loaded onto the flight before the one the passenger was booked on. I was travelling back from Italy to Stansted with friends, and one of them had wrongly booked a flight a couple of hours later than the one the rest of us were on and didn't realise he had until told at the check-in desk. They checked his bag in anyway (for his flight), off we went to board (and he went to the pub for a couple of hours) and it ended up on our flight - one of us recognised it and took it for him, but it was loaded onto the wrong flight despite being tagged correctly due to handler error.

 

[nap666]

Colleague of mine flew from Birmingham to Belfast in July with Aer Lingus his luggage with his work clothes for a week went missing, he got a phone call 3 days later from San Francisco to say they were sending it back to BHX, he finally received it after 5 days.
On the return from Belfast, they didn't load the luggage so he had to wait another 2 days for his dirty washing.

 

[chrisjo]

When I was on the rigs, Kristiansand and Kristiansund was a favourite cock-up.

 

[sheff1]

If this happens the luggage is meant to be removed. Planes are often delayed for this to take place.

Interesting. If the plane had been delayed by more than a few minutes I could have made it, assuming the air bridge was still in place.

No major issue for me though as the next onward flight was only an hour or so later than the one I was originally booked on and when I arrived my luggage was ready and waiting - no need to hang around waiting for it to appear on the belt.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Interesting. If the plane had been delayed by more than a few minutes I could have made it, assuming the air bridge was still in place.

They often do wait for last minute runners as it takes less time than taking the bags off. It's sometimes said that the way to make a tight connection is to check a bag in!

 

[edwin_m]

Interesting. If the plane had been delayed by more than a few minutes I could have made it, assuming the air bridge was still in place.

I imagine once they'd decided to take someone's bag off, that the passenger in question would not have been allowed to board. Otherwise there would be even more delay while the bag was put back on.

 

[Whisky Papa]

One of my earliest flights, about thirty years back, was a holiday to the Isle of Man with my wife and young son. We flew from Manchester, from the domestic pier at what is now T3, and having boarded our British Airways BAe ATP my son and I were watching luggage being loaded onto a similar plane headed for Jersey. We were slightly surprised to see a black labrador in a cage going up the ramp, and pointed it out to my wife. The middle-aged lady sat next to her then burst into a huge panic - it was her dog being loaded onto the wrong flight!

Fortunately the mistake was rectified without much delay, but it was just sheer chance we spotted it while I was endevouring to entertain a rather nervous child.

 

[Gloster]

Slightly off at a tangent. After Ozzy Osbourne’s death a couple of Americans wanted to see his house in Birmingham. They knew what the gates looked and spent two days driving around looking for them. They failed as they were in Birmingham, Alabama.

 

[FinsburyPark]

In the modern day, with boarding passes that have barcodes on them. How can this even happen.

*So lets say I am on a flight to Málaga and lets say I get confused and wait in line for a flight to Murcia. After all they both begin with M and are both in Spain.

At the gate for the Murcia flight the barcode woudn't scan and would show the check in agent some kind of error message.

* as someone who flies reguarly I'd do all in my power not to make such a mistake.

Also its worth noting that depending on how much sleep the passenger has had, this type of mistake isn't tremendously hard to make.

My point it shoudn't a barcode BP be the be all and end all to solving this problem.

 

[AlterEgo]

Slightly off at a tangent. After Ozzy Osbourne’s death a couple of Americans wanted to see his house in Birmingham. They knew what the gates looked and spent two days driving around looking for them. They failed as they were in Birmingham, Alabama.

Is that a joke?

 

[Gloster]

Is that a joke?

No, apparently true, or at least as true as a newspaper report can be thought to be. They were from somewhere in the Deep South, possibly Arkansas or maybe Arizona. (I remember that both states stated with A.)

 

[Bletchleyite]

In the modern day, with boarding passes that have barcodes on them. How can this even happen.

Because when the barcode doesn't scan staff often just override it by entering the seat number. If that seat number hasn't already boarded then it won't flag. It does, in that case, tend to be noticed when the real holder of that seat attempts to board, but it does depend on how much attention staff are paying.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Only really an issue if the potential terrorist has spotted a loophole in the system, so they can be confident of not being on board the same plane as their bag. It would be very unlikely for someone planning this sort of attack to stumble upon the possible but rare chance of it happening to them randomly.

Exactly. Crazily rare and unpredictable for this to happen.

I know some people are not frequent fliers but this situation of boarding the wrong plane is crazy to me.

 

[stadler]

I have just done a quick google search and this is actually far more common than i could have imagined.

Just in recent years i have found dozens and dozens of articles about people ending up in the wrong destination.

Person travelling from Bristol (UK) ends up in Kaunas (Lithuania) instead of in Barcelona (Spain):

Ryanair: Couple flown to Lithuania after being put on wrong plane

A couple hoping for a holiday in the sun ended up in Lithuania after a flight mix-up.

www.bbc.co.uk

Person travelling from Bristol (UK) ends up in Majorca (Spain) instead of in Menorca (Spain):

Holiday 'ruined' as travellers get on wrong flight and don't realise

The pair claim they had their boarding passes verified five times but still ended up on the incorrect aircraft

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Person travelling from Copenhagen (Denmark) ends up in Bologna (Italy) instead of in Berlin (Germany):

‘Welcome to Bologna’: The moment a passenger’s flight to Berlin went badly wrong

It remains unclear how the gate check-in staff allowed the woman to board the Ryanair plane

www.independent.co.uk

Person travelling from Glasgow (UK) ends up in Bristol (UK) instead of in Faro (Portugal):

A passenger heading to Portugal ended up in the wrong country after boarding the incorrect plane in Scotland

The passenger was due to travel from Scotland to Portugal but ended up in an English city more than 300 miles from their starting location.

www.businessinsider.com

Person travelling from London Stansted (UK) ends up in Zakynthos (Greece) instead of in Seville (Spain):

Couple's fury as they land in wrong country after boarding Ryanair flight

The couple were allowed onto the flight despite having boarding passes for a completely different destination

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Person travelling from Manchester (UK) ends up in Paris (France) instead of in Copenhagen (Denmark):

Baffled couple board Ryanair flight - & land in the wrong country 780 miles away

A COUPLE who had booked a Ryanair flight to Denmark were left stunned after they ended up nearly 800 miles away in France just days before Christmas. Simon Forster and Emma Schofield had planned a …

www.thesun.co.uk

Person travelling from Marseille (France) ends up in Madrid (Spain) instead of in London Stansted (UK):

Couple ends up 800 miles from home after boarding wrong Ryanair flight

‘We realised all the flight attendants were speaking Spanish,’ says couple of penny dropping

www.independent.co.uk

An entire plane full of passengers travelling from Sundsvall (Sweden) end up in Lulea (Sweden) instead of in Gothenburg (Sweden) after they are boarded on to the wrong flight and the crew did not realise:

FAIL: Swedish Airline Flies To Wrong Destination Due To Miscommunication

Here's how Swedish regional airline Nextjet accidentally operated a flight in the exact opposite direction of passengers thought they were going.

onemileatatime.com

This one is slightly different as it is the fault of the passenger who had booked flights to Bucharest (Romania) instead of Budapest (Hungary):

These Travelers Booked a Flight to the Wrong Country & Didn't Notice Until Boarding

Talk about last-minute travel plan changes!

www.thrillist.com

Not really an issue but a slightly different one here of someone boarding the wrong flight from Manchester (UK) to Alicante (Spain) when two flights to the same place were departing at the same time:

Couple criticise Ryanair after accidentally boarding wrong flight

They blamed the airline's 'lack of organisation' for the mishap.

metro.co.uk

Manchester Airport passenger slams Ryanair after boarding wrong flight

Simon Robinson and his wife Michelle were allowed through the boarding gate and onto the wrong plane

www.cheshire-live.co.uk

So passengers accidentally boarding the wrong flight seems to be far more common than i thought. It seems like half of these cases are either people who had booked disability assistance and been put on the wrong flight or people who arrived late and were rushed through. But i am surprised at just how many of these incidents have happened.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

That is crazy. Once is happenstance - but that often ? Wow. I did not realize.

 

[TrackWatch]

There was a story in 2012 (they were interviewed on TV) who booked tickets to come to London from Australia for the Olympics. They in fact mistakenly booked to London (ON) in Canada and didn't realise until they were on the flight and overheard other passengers talking. I recall they were quite wealthy and simply used the opportunity to see Niagara Falls and Toronto for a few days before flying on to London, UK on a new ticket.

 

[FinsburyPark]

What happens if a passenger boards a plane by accident and the passenger does not have the visa for.

Lets say a passenger is going to Mumbai but ends up on a plane to Melbourne.

Said passenger would have visa or pre approval to go to India and not to Australia.

Can the airline get fined if they took a passenger to a destination for which they did not have a valid visa for entry.

Yes on some level the passenger ks responsible at least part way, this is true.

But its also true that airlines can get fined for transporting passengers who don't have visas, or travel on invalid or damaged passports. It could be said that while the passenger made a mistake and carries some of the responsibilty, in these cases the airline didn't do ample checks and balances or the case slipped through the net.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Can the airline get fined if they took a passenger to a destination for which they did not have a valid visa for entry.

Yes.

And if it happens too often the regulators will have something to say too, for obvious security reasons.

 

[jon0844]

I find that very hard to believe. You honestly think somebody would purposely purchase a ticket to the wrong destination or get on the wrong aeroplane just for Tik Tok views. I know people do crazy things to get viral but this just seems like such a massive effort for someone to go to just for the purpose of a Tik Tok stunt.

Very late reply, but TikTok is full of people doing far worse things (often highly illegal and immoral) for clout. I haven't looked at the links or read any more about what happened, but people are very creative and with some help from others to make something viral, it can lead to a massive boost in followers and followers then means you can start to earn money, from collabs with other content creators, sponsorships and becoming a paid influencer etc.

(Or you end up in jail, or dead, as has happened with many TikTokers who pushed the boundaries too far.)

 

[TravelDream]

That is crazy. Once is happens- but that often ? Wow. I did not realize.

I had a good laugh reading some of those news reports with heading to Menorca instead of Majorca being written about as if it's worse than terminal cancer.

In reality, the airline will put you up at a hotel, feed you, and get you to your destination as long as it wasn't your fault (and that includes Ryanair).

Most of these are also linked to PRM (Passengers with reduced mobility) handling agents who are the responsibility of the airport, not airline.
Though I also think some of these people switch their brains off at the airport.

 

[Bill57p9]

What happens if a passenger boards a plane by accident and the passenger does not have the visa for.

Similar things can happen in the event of diversions, such as a small number of UK domestic flights (no passport required) being diverted to the Schengen area (passport very much required for arrivals from UK) due to a storm a month or two back.

In practical terms the passenger will likely be refused entry to that country and put on another flight.

In the modern day, with boarding passes that have barcodes on them. How can this even happen.

Quite simple: to err is human.
Overload people (see some comments in this thread from gate agents) and the likelihood skyrockets.
I would suggest that "expectation bias" has a lot to do with it: the passenger expects the flight to be going where they intend. The gate agent expects the passengers to all have a boarding pass for the flight. The vast majority of warnings flagged by the scanner are seat changes. Etc, etc.

Also, with millions of passengers flying each year, statistics tell you that even with a small probability, it will happen.

Professionally I would suggest the design of the gate scanners be updated to give a different audible and visual cue for unexpected passenger Vs expected passenger but something else is up.



I did recently board a flight where 2 identical aircraft were boarding side by side at the same time, using adjacent gates and the same terminal door. The cabin crews were very wary, checking every boarding pass carefully and asking every passenger where they (thought they!) were going.

 

[EYFanatic]

Passengers getting on the wrong plane is bad enough, but I seem to recall a few cases where the pilots got on the wrong plane and caused major issues. Back in EasyJet's earliest days, they had to divert to another airport because neither the Captain or First Officer had realised they were not qualified to land at Innsbruck (its rated Captain's Landing Only) and were supposed to take the flight to Vienna... Major cock-up there and more then a few reports written