Passengers headed for Zurich on an EasyJet flight last week got a surprise when the plane ended up on the other side of Berlin.
The flight, scheduled to take them to Zurich, was delayed in take-off from Berlin’s Tegel Airport, in the northwest part of the city, was supposed to leave at 9:20 pm, but a technical problem pushed that back to 11 pm. The plane took off, assuming that Zurich, which bans flights after 11:30 pm, would make an exception.
When the pilot found out at 11:40 that there would be no exception, he had no choice but to return to Berlin—but in the meantime, Tegel had shut down for the night. The plane was diverted to Berlin’s other airport, Schonefeld, southeast of the city. By the time it arrived, after 85 minutes in the air, there were only five cabs available for the 200 passengers.
