Passenger who boarded the wrong plane realized his mistake minutes before take off

A man traveling home after two weeks in Turkey nearly flew to the wrong destination. Matt Hodgetts, 56, realized the mistake only when he was commenting on other passengers and realized that they were going not to Birmingham but to Gatwick Airport, on the outskirts of London. The distance between targets is more than 220 km.

The man told British tabloid The Sun what it was like to be misunderstood. “I crossed the air bridge, walked to the plane, gave my boarding pass and sat down,” says the chauffeur-driver.

“I said, ‘I can’t wait to get back to Birmingham.’ People started laughing and they were like, ‘You mean Gatwick?’ he said, “She remembers that moment.

He also says he was instructed to “go ahead” after a security check and was not questioned by an airline employee who confirmed his boarding pass before boarding the wrong plane.

When Matt realized his mistake, he desperately called a stewardess and explained the situation. Since the plane had already started the process of leaving the boarding gate, he had to wait about 15 minutes before he could change planes.

In a note published after the incident, EasyJet stated that the situation was resolved quickly and apologized for the mistake. “When the error was discovered, prior to departure, the passenger was transferred from the same gate to the correct boarding plane at the same time, and we apologize for the inconvenience.”