Photo: Amit Cotler This morning (March 25, 2025), a passenger scheduled to fly with Blue Bird from Ben Gurion Airport to El Prat Airport in Barcelona mistakenly boarded the wrong flight — and ended up landing at Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome.
Although she believed she was headed to Barcelona, her boarding pass granted her access to a Rome-bound flight operated by the same airline, departing just ten minutes earlier — at 11:15, compared to the 11:25 departure to Barcelona.
Additionally, PassportNews has learned that the passenger's suitcase remained in Israel and did not arrive in either Rome or Barcelona.
The passenger's son shared with PassportNews this evening: "We booked the flight ticket for my mother from Tel Aviv to Barcelona. I personally checked her in yesterday evening. I confirmed that the flight was to Barcelona. I sent her the boarding pass. She arrived at the airport on time. At the check-in counter, they gave her gate 1E. She boarded the plane when they announced boarding started - and to her surprise, she landed in Rome".
Now, the question arises - how can a boarding pass open gates for other flights that are not the intended destination, and have similar incidents occurred in the past, as this is a particularly serious lapse, even if the passengers cleared security screening.
In conclusion, a recommendation for you travelers: Double-check, regardless of where you are flying from and to, before you reach the gate - that you are indeed boarding the correct flight. Save yourself risks and distress.
The airline Blue Bird reported: "This is a human error that is not ours but belongs to the ground service company. We are investigating the incident with them and will clarify the procedures to ensure this does not happen again".
The Israel Airports Authority stated: "The misidentification of the passengers by the airline will be investigated".
The response from the ground service company QAS will be provided once received.
