(Image: Google Maps)
On the left, you can see Grenada, a small island nation in the Caribbean Sea. On the right is Granada, a province in southern Spain. They're about 4,000 miles apart.
Last September, Edward Gamson, a dentist from Maryland, was in Portugal for a conference. He got to the conference early, so he thought that he'd take a quick trip to Granada in Spain. He called a travel agent and asked for a ticket to Granada.
Gamson boarded a British Airways flight. After takeoff, he noticed that the plane was not heading east. He asked a flight attendant why the plane wasn't going in the right direction. He says that the flight attended responded, "Spain? We're going to the West Indies."
After three days of difficult traveling, Gamson made it back to Portugal. He blames British Airways for the debacle, so he's suing. NBC News reports:
British Airways offered him and his partner $376 each and 50,000 miles, Gamson said. But he figured the pre-booked hotels, trains and other tours they had planned cost upward of $34,000. So he sued the airline, and he's representing himself.
"I have no legal background; I’m a dentist, but I know right from wrong — I don’t know if that does you any good
"I really thought they would just want to settle with me, because it’s so apparent that it’s just a stupid mistake," he said.
-via Jonah Goldberg
It would have been heading west in order to be headed toward Grenada.
He made this story up, in order to save face and not appear too stupid.
On the other hand, it takes at least two major blunders to have this sort of thing happen. One of them might have been on the part of the BA.