Ryanair mix-up lands passenger at wrong destination

PA

A Ryanair passenger from Cornwall was allowed to board the wrong plane at Stansted Airport - raising questions about security issues.

Professional surfer Toby Donachie, 19, was supposed to be flying Biarritz in the South of France but instead ended up in Sweden.

He said he boarded the plane after a last-minute gate change and only realised he was on the wrong aircraft after an in-flight announcement, despite his tickets being checked by staff at the gate as well as on board.

He told the BBC: "Half-way there, there was a call saying we're flying over Denmark."

"The tickets were looked at. My boarding pass said Biarritz, and yet I was on a plane to Malmo, Sweden.

"The cabin crew just felt really bad for me when I told them. They were worried about me and super helpful."

He added: "The cabin crew told me that when they did the head count, a child was hiding on the plane; so the crew didn't notice that there was an extra passenger.

"All my family and friends cried with laughter when I told them I had arrived in the wrong country."

Once he landed in Sweden he was put on a return flight back to the UK, and the airline paid for a hotel as well as giving him a new ticket to Biarritz for the following day.

But he said the incident did raise issues over security.

Stansted Airport said the responsibility for checking passengers at the gate and on to planes lay with airlines.

Ryanair told the BBC: "While the primary responsibility for boarding the correct aircraft lies with each passenger, we have asked our handling agent in Stansted to investigate this error and ensure that whatever procedural breakdown happened in this case will not recur."

See 10 things we love to hate about budget airlines:

%VIRTUAL-Gallery-134072%

Sign up to our weekly newsletterFollow us on TwitterBecome a fan on Facebook