The wrong other side of the world

Wow! Can you imagine what it must have felt like to realize this mistake?

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.

It must be weird to arrive on the wrong side of the other side of the world. I assume the language barrier had to play a part in this error as it developed. It wouldn't be all that weird to land in America en route to Sydney from Europe. Sure, I'd notice something was wrong once I boarded a plane in Portland headed for Montana, but what about the German equivalent? If I were flying to a destination in Asia, I might not notice a problem (other than inconvenience) with stops in Frankfurt and Berlin. Like this traveler, I would know something was seriously wrong when boarding a prop plane for BFE, rural Germany, though.

As a side note, in my opinion this was a major missed public relations opportunity by the airline(s) in question. Carrying the traveler safely to Australia for free would have spawned some great goodwill and positive word of mouth. Whoops. The mayor of either Sidney or Sydney might have made a splash by granting him a key to the city, too. [Image source: sidneymt.com]