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Airline mix-up sends passengers to wrong continent

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A couple who had intended to fly from Los Angeles to Dakar, Senegal, ended up 7,000 miles away in Dhaka, Bangladesh, because of an airline error. Sandy Valdivieso and her husband Triet Vo, 39, told the Los Angeles Times that they didn't think anything was amiss when they got their Turkish Airlines boarding passes for their flights from Los Angeles to Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Their passes had them going from LAX, the airport code for Los Angeles International Airport, to IST, Istanbul,… (www.usatoday.com) More...

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JetMech24
JetMech24 8
Dakar, Dhaka, close enough right? LOL
BenKFIT
Ben Lillie 3
If you're in NYC it's the same thing. lol
mbvillela
Marcos Villela 5
I have always asked myself why the baggage gets lost but never the passengers... I have dreams of my bags going to any airport while I was sent by mistake to Paris... Unfortunately it never happened to me!
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne -1
I always book Paris, FRANCE because I don' t want to end up in some shithole in Texas...
jimcolby
James Colby 6
Dear Ms. Lasne: Clean up your language. This discussion site is not a suitable forum for either your prejudiced nonsense or vulgarity.
66lima
Richard Dugger 3
About 20 years ago there were 5 sailors that arrived in Valparaiso INDIANA and ask for directions to the ship yards.

They were supposed to be in Valparaiso in S. America.

They got their picture in the paper and everything.
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne -1
Valparaiso is in Chile which is a country in South America.
AWAAlum
AWAAlum 1
Yeah, he said S. America.
MD11ER
Daniel BA 3
Total crap:

"But he's never heard of an airline sending passengers to completely wrong continents"

It has happened several times that Passengers ended up in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, qhen they intended to Fly to Sydney in Australia. So not that uncommon really...
As posted before, there are enough examples (Oakland/Auckland; London, ON/London; Fayetteville, AR/Fayetteville, NC etc.)
KevinThorn
Kevin Thornton 3
I had a car wreck while driving thru Huntington, WV while trying to get to Nashville. Totaled the car. Booked a ticket on Delta (i think) from HTS (tri-state airport) to BNA. Get to the airport the next morning and my ticket was for TRI-BNA (TRI-CITIES AIRPORT in Kingsport, TN). The price difference was $300! Delta was kind enough to give me the price for the other ticket.

jbermo
jbermo 5
Back in the days of traval agents, a freind was trying to go to Torino Italy. The tickets sent were to Reno Nevada.

[This poster has been suspended.]

nicholasweber
nicholas weber 2
One could ask for a ticket to "Little Bull" though the English airports wouldn't really get it!!!
brunercp
Phil Bruner 2
When I was a child (in the 50's) we put my grandmother on a flt from STL Lamber Field to Louisville KY. it was an old twin engine redid. Somehow the airline got here on the wrong plane. 15 min after take off the landed, deboarded her then finally got her on the right plane to Louisville
plk304
Poloko Nyambe 2
What a mix up!

I hope it was fun or leisure tour, not a business trip.
Airline sponsored travel, without a lotto draw!
Someone has to pay for this gesture.
debbiemaleny
We're used to Americans saying: "Paris, France" and we laugh at them. Maybe this was the passengers' fault, they didn't specify the country. Now, now, NO not the passengers' fault, but the person taking the booking either airline employee or travel agent. In either situation, they should clarify which place it is and which country and it is certainly not up to the passenger to know each airline code for each city that's why there are people employed by travel agents and airlines.
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne 1
Each airline does not have a specific city/airport code. There is an international standard in coding cities and their respective airport(s). Sioux City, for example, is SUX. It applies to all carriers.
barridale
james marsh 1
Back in the eighties there were two plane loads of passengers on two small inter island flights that went to the wrong islands. About 150 pax in each plane. This happened in Athens Greece, apparently the ground hostess instructed the two waitng rooms of pax to go to the wrong aircraft. So the plane went to the right place but not the pax. Some were late to get to the right beach but what a mess for the pax waiting to leave to connect out of Athens
AABABY
AABABY 1
These stories could be material for next season's TV comedy line up.
Sure beats whats on now on any network.
devsfan
ken young 1
I;ve heard stories about carriers losing luggage or sending luggage to the incorrect destination, but JESUS....Sending PEOPLE to the wrong CONTINENT?....
nicholasweber
nicholas weber 1
More than once passengers have ended up in London Ontario instead of London England!!!!!
Kantsi
This is serious!
AABABY
AABABY 1
That's the good news. The bad news is-- You'll be aboard Dreamliner serial # 0003
nicholasweber
nicholas weber 1
Booking a flight between WRY and PPW is probably the only occasion you would not get lost "One hopes!!"
hfpotter
hfpotter 1
When I worked at Pan Am many years ago, we had three sister cities in our route structure - that is three pairs of cities with the same names but in different countries. Like San Jose (California and Costa Rica) Never heard of it causing any problem.
billcc
billcc 2
But when good ol' Pam Am existed flying was a much more dignified mode of transport. Now it's just slightly better than shipping yourself in a box. :-)
AWAAlum
AWAAlum 1
There's also a San Jose del cabo, Mexico.
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne 1
There also are San Joses in Panama, Colombia, Bolivia and the Philippines.
JCMIA
James Carlin 1
I hope they had proper visas :)
AABABY
AABABY 1
Should have Capital One card. It's good anyplace! Har,Har.
BentParrot
Ray Irizarry 1
Hey,this isn't unusual. A few years back a guy in Frankfurt boarded a flight on Air New Zealand, w/pit stop in LAX, continuing to Auckland. He was asleep on landing at LAX, and rather than wake him, the FA's left him alone and the flight took off. Hours into the final leg, the dummy asked why it was taking so long to get to OAKLAND! But, s--- happens. My own son, who works for a major airline, was flying standby, IAH-SFO. When he couldn't board, he asked for a flight to San Jose, instead. Yeah, you guessed it: He and his bride landed a few hours later in Costa Rica!
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne 2
I tell you, better Costa Rica than San Jose, California. Costa Rica is a nice little country with a lot to offer, San Jose, not so much.
HerrThor
HerrThor 1
How can the people affected can be employed by UCLA? At least they should had make sure they had the correct airport code, or if they were heading the correct country. They also were sent to their destinations with no further cost, maybe they only want to sue the airline.
PetroHawk
Gordon Swanson 1
A lot more fun in the old days. Sydney, NS. Sydney, Australia or Sidney, Vancouver Island. London England with baggage (remember those old manual tags) to London, Ontario.

Question here is, "Did they book themselves online or can they find some employee to blame?" And you pilots don't need to be too smug either. I recall a CP 737 that flew 250 miles the wrong direction from YZF before they realised the boo boo.
kdog1839
david kuhn 1
Anyone remember the little girl that ended up at the wrong airport? I believe that was America West.
AWAAlum
AWAAlum 1
It was when I worked there. And thanks - I'd managed to forget!
ikiyasui
Rod Williams 1
I suspect this kind of stuff up is more common than we know. Anecdotal stories of similar events have been around for years. I live in Melbourne but I sure as aint in Florida.
AABABY
AABABY 1
Ok, Time to dump this. The children are starting to bicker.
jimcolby
James Colby 1
Dear Ms. Lasne: Clean up your language. This is not a suitable forum for vulgarity. Grow up.
eichelro
eichelro 1
I remember a story about a guy trying to get to Oakland, but ended up on flight to Auckland, NZ. Took several days to get back home.
JMARTINSON
JMARTINSON 1
Yup, it was some college kid who probably still goes by his 15 minutes of fame name: Wrong-Way Mike!
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne 1
Right! That was 20 or 30 years ago.
smenzel
Steven Menzel 1
To bad they were not more attentive. Attentiveness means "showing the worth of a person or task by giving my undivided concentration."
MikeRigg
Mike Rigg 1
About 20 years ago, prior to ticket barcoding, I was connecting in Atlanta, going to Greenville, SC. Running late and running to the flight, I boarded the aircraft, moved to the rear cabin where my seat was located, and stored my carry-on bag overhead. I turned to find my seat occupied, and said, "I think I have this seat." The lady in the seat produced a ticket with the same seat number. I had a bewildered look on my face for an instant before she said, "...going to Memphis." I said, "this plane is going to Greenville." She became flustered, stood up, grabbed her bag and deplaned. I sat down, turned to the guy in the window seat and said with a smile, "she thought this plane was going to Memphis." He replied, [wait for it], "it is." I met one angry lady coming back up the aisle as I was deplaning.
JacksonRentsAtlanta
Jackson Franco 1
People should be responsible for their behavior. KNOW the abbreviation for the city you are flying to. Whatever happened to responsibility?
JMARTINSON
JMARTINSON 3
Are you talking about the passengers, the airline employees, or both?
AWAAlum
AWAAlum 1
I disagree. The flying public had ought to be able to name their destination and get there w/o knowing the airline jargon.
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne 1
It is not jargon - a French word BTW - but an international standard like the metric system.
AWAAlum
AWAAlum 2
I'm so impressed with your pedantic knowledge, and so abysmally ashamed of my informal and relaxed and apparently poor choice of verbiage. How could I?!!!
carlosmc
Back in the 80's I was traveling from Heathrow to Miami in British Airways. While in Line for the check-in in front of me there were a couple of oil workers with some drinks in their chests, I mean they seré drunk and they wanted to travel in Business with an economy ticket. The station hostess try to explain that it was not possible. They treat her very bad, with very nasty words. Finally they got their boarding passes and leave the area. When was my turn, I tray to appologize in the name of all men. She smiled and told me "those gentlemen are going to Dallas, their luggage to Hong Kong"
FrenchDriver
J.J. Lasne -1
Well done! Never piss off a counter clerk.
jbermo
jbermo 0
travel agent that is . .
westfly
kyle estep 0
More than once people have boarded the flight for Lafayette LA expecting to end up in IN, or Charleston WV expecting to end up in SC....
mattander21
That would be a while ago. There has not been any commerical airline service to Lafayette, IN (KLAF) for quite some time.
THRUSTT
THRUSTT -7
Who is the idiot that's downgrading all these comments??? Get a life!!!
joelwiley
joel wiley 0
It has to be more than one. You can only upgrade/downgrade once.
skuttlerats
Jeffrey Babey -1
Some worthless troll with no life.
mpenney
Michael Penney 1
one troll for each down or up
draltoncsmith
Alton Smith 0
Try this one: My wife got on the plane in Mexico City headed for Springfield, MO. She ended up on the lonely Baha Peninsula. She stirred the sleeping workers (under their sombreros) and finally got a plane to LA and from thence Springfield all with $5.00 in her pocket.
HerrThor
HerrThor -1
Your wife surely was a complete dumb because in these days one can book with great precision a flight to anywhere!
richko
Wouldn't want to go to either place. Hawaii was on 5 hours away instead! Nice screening.

[This comment has been downvoted. Show anyway.]

109658
Next time read the article. The plane went to the right place, the customers went on the wrong plane. Funny you talk about pilots not reading flight plans when YOU don't read the full article.
AWAAlum
AWAAlum 2
Didn't even have to read the full article - the headline made it clear.
joelwiley
joel wiley 2
On first reading, I thought the post was satire. Now I'm not so sure.
barridale
james marsh 2
Hope you are now retired.
AWAAlum
AWAAlum 2
No kidding.
ArthurNetteler
Arthur Netteler -3
What if this had happen going across the Pacific... Can they swim???

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