Canadian man boards wrong flight, travels 2,300km in opposite direction
A Canadian flimmaker and wildlife photographer ended up taking the longest flight of his life, after he mistakenly boarded the wrong flight. The man in question, Christopher Paetkau, was headed to Inuvik from Yellowknife, but mistakenly boarded a flight to Iqaluit, which was around 2,300km in the opposite direction. However, his unintended journey had a pleasant end.
The automated systems at the airport was down
Paetkau was spending a night at the city of Yellowknife in Canada, and was slated to head to Inuvik, 1,100km northwest of Yellowknife. Paetkau, however, arrived late at the airport, where the automated systems were down, and ticket information was being entered by staff manually. The filmmaker got his ticket checked, and was sent to the tarmac where three planes were waiting.
Multiplicity of boarding calls confused Paetkau
"I'm standing at Gate 4 and I see there was three airplanes that are sitting out there on the tarmac, and also three boarding calls happening simultaneously pretty much at Gate 4, and they're all final calls," said Paetkau.
Miscommunication resulted in the blunder
When he boarded one of the three planes, Paetkau still wasn't sure that he was on the correct flight. To clarify his doubt, he asked a flight attendant whether the flight would go to Inuvik. The flight attendant, who clearly thought he was joking, replied, "Yeah, eventually". It was only later that she realized the blunder, and felt really bad about it.
Paetkau had a jolly time on his return to Yellowknife
Being responsible for the blunder, the airlines, First Air, had the courtesy of transporting Paetkau back to Yellowknife. The filmmaker also managed to make friends with the captain and the flight crew, and despite taking the longest, unintended journey of his life, ended up having a jolly time which even involved flying over the arctic. All is well that ends well, it surely seems.
