Winnipeg Man Heading For Canada Ends Up In Wrong Flight, Travels 2300 Km In Other Direction

A man from Winnipeg, Canada, ended up taking the longest flight of his life after he boarded a wrong one. Filmmaker and wildlife photographer Christopher Paetkau, who was heading to Inuvik from Yellowknife, accidentally took a flight to Iqaluit, which was 2,260 km in the other direction of his original destination.

After staying a night in Yellowknife, Paetkau was all set to board a flight that would take him 1,100 km northwest to Inuvik. As the ticket kiosks were down at the airport, the staff was entering the ticket information manually.

I just boarded the wrong airplane and flew to the wrong destination. Can’t believe it.

Where will I end up next?#arctic #firstair #yellowknife #airtravel @CBCManitoba #winnipeg pic.twitter.com/DfZYa4ATjW

— Christopher Paetkau (@ChrisPaetkau) August 13, 2018

“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,” he told CBC news. After his ticket was checked, Paetkau was sent to the Tarmac, after which the confusion occurred.

Christopher Paetkau thought he boarded a plane to Inuvik, but ended up in Iqaluit. Here's how he made the 2,300 km mistake. #TheMoment pic.twitter.com/fI3PdWVVpn

— CBC News: The National (@CBCTheNational) August 15, 2018

Though the filmmaker was not sure about the flight he had boarded, he confirmed it with a flight attendant who responded to his “Is this flight going to Inuvik?” question with a ‘yeah eventually,’ stated that same report. It wasn’t until he asked for another flight that he realised the blunder. “The woman who told me that we’d be arriving in Inuvik eventually, she felt horrible. She was like, ‘Oh my God I didn’t take you seriously, like, I thought you were joking,” he told the news company. The filmmaker then tweeted out the ordeal.

Kind of incredible how this happened. But I’m heading back to #Yellowknife now after a tour of the #arctic. Decided to make the best of it... so did the @FirstAir captain and crew. We’re buds now! pic.twitter.com/qVECX6OKeQ

— Christopher Paetkau (@ChrisPaetkau) August 13, 2018

The airlines also responded to Paetkau tweet.

We aim to please! Since you're buds with our crew and Captain, you're friends with the entire First Air family too! We expect a holiday party invite of course! https://t.co/SLezZQKJ9j

— First Air (@FirstAir) August 13, 2018