A woman who mistakenly boarded a Qantas Airways flight
in Los Angeles, believing the flight was heading for Hong Kong,
arrived in Melbourne because of an out-of-service computerised
boarding system.
The passenger realised the mistake just minutes before landing
in Melbourne.
The woman had a boarding pass for a Cathay Pacific flight from
Los Angeles to Hong Kong when she mistakenly got on an earlier
Qantas flight departing from the same gate at Los Angeles LAX
airport, a Qantas spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the electronic boarding pass readers,
which would have identified the boarding pass error, were "out of
service".
"The ground staff conducted manual boarding procedures and
didn't notice the error."
Qantas made arrangements for the woman to stay in Melbourne on
Sunday night, and put her on a Qantas flight to Hong Kong on
Monday.
Because the woman did not turn up for her Cathay Pacific flight,
her luggage was kept in Los Angeles, but it was flown on to meet
her in Hong Kong on Monday.
Qantas officials could not confirm if a similar boarding hitch
had happened before, but claimed it would be rare.
Computerworld Today