Fully a week before April Fool’s Day, Grayling Airways surprised their passengers today by landing a plane in the wrong country and welcoming passengers to their unintended destination.

Eyebrows were quickly raised after touchdown when a Grayling aircraft with call sign G-OHNO taxied towards the terminal at Edinburgh Airport and a large “Welcome to Edinburgh” sign hoved into view.

“I was momentarily completely embarrassed,” said passenger Ian Napton. “I thought I must have boarded the wrong plane at London City. You automatically assume it’s going to be your own fault, don’t you? It’s reasonable to think the pilots know where they’re going. Isn’t it?”

“The crew looked sheepish,” another passenger added. “I accept I booked a cheap ticket on a budget carrier, but it never crossed my mind they wouldn’t go to the right place. I thought I was going to Düsseldorf. No more of these cheap flights for me. I’m using British Airways next time.”

A spokesman for Grayling insisted that the Captain and her Co-Pilot had followed company policy correctly. “Captain May and Co-Pilot Lidington took off on time from London City this morning and followed their flight plan to Edinburgh Airport, to the letter. Spotting the Forth Bridge in the distance mattered not and Captain May correctly ignored her colleague’s observations when he suggested an alternative route might be for the best.”

A vote to see if passengers really wanted to be in Edinburgh was suggested by one of the cabin crew, but quickly dismissed by the Captain.

Brexit continues.

The Origin of the Edinburgh Airport Story

The original story, a flight landing in Edinburgh rather than Dusseldorf seemed amusing. You would have thought they would have noticed, lack of sea, flight times and compass pointing North being big clues.

Colin’s idea of adding the Master of Mayhem, Captain Ineptitude to the story was too good an opportunity to miss. We particulalry liked the call sign.

This is the original BBC story; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news

Chris Grayling is a recurring theme, here at Chatty, this is one of our favourites; https://chattychimp.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/chris-grayling-accidently-awards-the-33-million-freight-handling-contract-to-thomas-the-tank-and-the-fat-controller/