Chrissy Teigen's ANA Flight Turns Around Halfway After United Passenger Found Onboard

A flight with Japan’s All Nippon Airways that was bound to Tokyo returned to Los Angeles after it was discovered that a passenger did not belong on the plane.

Model Chrissy Teigen, who was on the plane too, tweeted about the mix-up, saying she had been on the plane for four hours when it turned around midair.

Teigen initially tweeted to say that she was unsure of exactly what had taken place on flight ANA 175 that caused the plane to turn around. She then talked about the passenger who had gotten onto the wrong plane.

American writer and comedian Jensen Karp then tweeted a picture of the flight’s path saying it his “Twilight Zone.”

In a series of tweets following this, Teigen then joked about how embarrassing must have been for the passenger who discovered he was on the wrong flight. “ This person is so lucky that we will all have to deplane. Imagine having to walk off alone. The shame! ” she wrote in a tweet.

Further, she also demanded to know how the person got onto the flight in the first place and questioned the airline’s decision of turning around mid-way instead of going to Tokyo and then send the passenger back to Los Angeles. “150 people have been majorly inconvenienced, please, just tell me,” she said.

Teigen also took swipes at the boarding pass machine. “ They keep saying the person had a United ticket. We are on ANA. So basically the boarding pass scanner is just a bee-doop machine that makes bee-doop noises that register nowhere,” she said.

Meanwhile, ABC affiliate KABC-TV cited Los Angeles Airport police saying the “unauthorized” person was discovered in an apparent mix-up.

Officers were told to have a unit and supervisors on the scene when the plane, flight ANA 175, arrives back in Los Angeles. They said that the return was due to a "mix up and was straightened up," and the plane will be re-scheduled to depart Wednesday morning.

Authorities also told CW- affiliate KTLA that the incident was not a “security issue.”

Los Angeles Times cited Lt. Adonis Cutchlow of the Los Angeles Airport Police saying that there was no criminal or illegal activity on the plane. He also stated all questions should be referred to the airline operating the flight. “All we know is that it was turned around,” Cutchlow said.

Meanwhile, Teigen said on Twitter that their plane was put in a secure area and police were interviewing the people who were sitting around the unauthorized passenger after they had gotten off the plane.

ANA Airlines did not respond to International Business Times’ request for a comment at the time of publishing this story.

Talking about the incident, All Nippon Airlines said in a statement to CBS: "During the flight, the cabin crew became aware that one of the passengers boarded the incorrect flight and notified the pilot. As part of the airline's security procedure, the pilot in command decided to return to the originating airport, where the passenger was disembarked. ANA is researching the situation currently to determine how the passenger boarded the flight. ANA would like to express its apologies to the passengers for the inconvenience. We take great pride providing exemplary customer service, and on this flight, we failed to do so."

There have been multiple other instances where passengers were allowed to board wrong flights and did not realize their mistake till mid-air.

In October last year, a passenger traveling to South California ended up in Texas after getting onto a wrong flight.

“I did look at the monitor. I saw the gate and I thought I was in the clear,” said Fernando Giron, who was traveling for a work meeting. “Everybody was shocked, the crew, the people at the counters, the people at the doors; they had no explanation for what happened,” he added.

Local reports said that the gate to Los Angeles was right next to the gate for Dallas Fort-Worth in Sacramento and was boarding at the same time. “What I don’t understand is that they scanned my boarding pass and that I was able to go all the way to the plane,” Fernando said.

American Airlines said in a statement at the time:

“We are aware of the incident and we are investigating with our Sacramento team how it occurred. Our customer relations team will contact the passenger directly.