Posted on 12/29/2006 9:52:00 AM PST by devane617
A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometers (8,077 miles) away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site. Dressed for the Australian summer in T-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany on Saturday for a four-week holiday. Instead of arriving "down under", Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana. "I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States." Gutt's airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney -- an oil town of about 5,000 people -- did he realize his mistake. The hapless tourist, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany. "I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," his mother, Sabine, told Reuters.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Some years ago, there was another German who landed in Bangor, Maine and thought he was in San Francisco. Maybe this guy is related.
Tobi Gutt?
Could probably use the exercise anyway.
Mamma always said spelling was important.
Does this guy have any Chinese cousins named Wang Wei by chance?
And the scientists who were supposed to go to a Global warming Conference(?) in Monterrey Mexico and wound up in Monterrey California!........
I've been telling a venture capitalist buddy of mine there needs to be a direct international flight from Billings, Montana to Sydney, Australia.
I now have proof of demand.
(Halten Sie mein Bier.)
A British tourist to the US wanted to fly home to Manchester, and he did...Manchester, NH, that is. Yes, there's more than one Manchester around(in fact there's a Manchester in each of the New England states though the Mass. one added "-by-the-sea"). He was wondering why the fare was so low.
I suppose, but isn't Australia closer to Germany than the US West Coast?
The Billings airport is classified as "International" although no international fights go to or from there. I do think they had some to Canada at one point.
People laughed at the idea you can get lost this way and demanded these fellows be strung up as terrorist invaders.
Here's a German who's explaining why he's lost the same way as a MISTAKE.
Why should we believe him. They have Moslem terrorists in Germany too. Could be he belongs in jail for a couple of months until we sort this out.
I remember the story you mention. Very interesting... Wonder what is going on in MT? Close to the CAN border, and spending three days unguarded in the MT airport...
Maybe it was a "test", eh?!?!?!?!?
It was possible for him to switch places with someone else that may have been trying to leave the country...The story was funny, but the possibilities for terrorist activity is not funny...
Are you serious?
Must be...too early for a double...
Or that Deutschland might have some terrorists (SEE: Mohammad Atta).
Or that someone might get hornswaggled out of their seat on the right airplane while someone else of a dangeorus nature is quietly rerouted in their place?
Or, that by misrouting one tourist a crooked travel agent can convert the money paid by that tourist to his or her own pocket.
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