Man ends up on the wrong side of the Arctic after boarding flight 1,400 miles in the OPPOSITE direction
Christopher Paetkau followed the wrong queue on the airport tarmac - and didn't realise his mistake until the plane landed
IT’S nigh-on impossible to get on the wrong flight with all the security measures that airports put in place – but somehow a Canadian man has managed it.
Christopher Paetkau, a wildlife photographer from Winnipeg, ended up 1,400 miles from his destination when he followed the wrong queue on the tarmac.
reports that Christopher was supposed to fly from Yellowknife to Inuvuk, Canada on First Air, a journey that should take around three hours.
However he managed to take a 1,400 mile detour on a flight going to the Canadian town of Iqaluit.
The mistake happened after Christopher was checked in manually at Yellowknife’s airport as computer systems were down.
After checking and waiting to board his flight, Christopher noticed people around him were getting up to board their flights, so he assumed his was ready too.
He said: “After 15 minutes people start moving out, and I’m thinking, is this my flight? People are leaving. I need to get on this flight.
“So now I’m following like a lemming, I’m following the rest of the people who are going on this flight.”
Once Christopher was on the tarmac, he followed the line of people and boarded his flight, though he admits he had a “funny feeling” that something wasn’t quite right.
It was several hours later that Christopher realised he had made a mistake – after the plane made a touchdown at Rankin Inlet – which wasn’t where he was meant to be going.
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He asked the flight attendant when the plane would be heading to Inuvik.
Christopher said the flight attendant said: “What are you talking about? We’re not going to Inuvik, we’re going to Iqaluit.”
Despite getting stranded 1,400 miles from where he was meant to be, Christopher isn’t annoyed at what happened.
He was put up in a hotel overnight back in Yellowknife and then boarded the correct flight.
A spokesperson for First Air said: “Although we are happy that Mr. Paetkau was able to ‘make the most of the situation’ in his words and that we were able to make his unexpected journey as pleasant as could be with our staff, we take this matter very seriously.”
Sun Online Travel previously revealed that 11,000 passengers missed border control entirely after that they were sent the wrong way.