John Roger Stephens, who is popularly known in the music world as John Legend, and his American model wife Chrissy Teigen were among passengers stuck in a grounded flight.
The celebrity couple reportedly spent over eight hours on a flight “to nowhere” due to passenger/airline errors which made a mess of their holiday travel on 26 December, 2017.
a flying first for me: 4 hours into an 11 hour flight and we are turning around because we have a passenger who isn’t supposed to be on this plane. Why…why do we all gotta go back, I do not know
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
In the anger-provoking event, John Legend and his wife boarded an All Nippon Airways Tokyo-bound flight from Los Angeles, and after spending long hours in the air, they landed, but not at their destination point.
Media reports confirm the Tokyo-bound plane was forced to turn back to Los Angeles after a mysterious passenger boarded the wrong plane.
All Nippon Airways flight NH175 departed Los Angeles International at 11:36am (1936 GMT) on Tuesday for Narita Airport, but returned to the United States after several hours, the airline told AFP.
“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 said.
“ANA is researching the situation currently to determine how the passenger boarded the flight.”
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
ABC News reported that the plane made a U-turn 4 hours into the 11-hour trip after discovering that one of its 226 passengers had boarded the wrong flight, but Teigen took it with smiles, firing a few hot tweets on social media.
Teigen, 32, posted on Twitter that every passengers aboard the plane had to disembark for police to interview those seated around the “missing Santa”.
what is happening how do you know more than I do. I’m still in the sky! https://t.co/0c4q8TKcwN
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
Lmao after all this I will have spent 8 hours on a flight to nowhere. Like we were all just havin a great time up here flyin in the sky watching gran torino time to go home now
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
Media reports said the man had a ticket for a United Airways flight, and CNN quotes a spokesperson for ANA as saying, “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.”
The mother-of-one re-tweeted a post from a fan alongside a selfie with her and Legend.
“My first tweet can’t be more epic than this: just survived an 8-hour LAX-LAX flight with @chrissyteigen and @johnlegend on #ANA#NH175”, the fan said.
After a series of tongue-in-cheek posts, Teigen expressed concern that all passengers had to suffer for one person’s mistake.
“Why did we all get punished for this one person’s mistake?” she wondered. “Why not just land in Tokyo and send the other person back? How is this the better idea, you ask? We all have the same questions.”
In another post, the Utah-born model complained that she won’t be able to sleep until an explanation is offered on how the passenger figured out he was on the wrong flight.
“That’s all I ask. 150 people have been majorly inconvenienced, please, just tell me,” she added.
“They keep saying the person had a United ticket. We are on ANA. So basically the boarding pass scanner is just a beedoop machine that makes beedoop noises that register to nowhere.”
LAX —> LAX flight complete. Flight time, 8 hours and 20 minutes.
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
“I have been moved to a room with Bravo. Clearly the authorities are trying to keep me quiet so I don’t BLOW THE LID OFF THIS ‘SITCH.'” she later joked after ANA issued her a spot at its lounge.
“I’m in a room with water and a tv!” she also said, adding that she was only using the word “room” for dramatics sake. “The government is using Real Housewives to keep me quiet !!!!!!”
I have been moved to a room with Bravo. Clearly the authorities are trying to keep me quiet so I don’t BLOW THE LID OFF THIS “SITCH” pic.twitter.com/ohhpCmjviG
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
They….they gave me ramen pic.twitter.com/0o9tk0wPrQ
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
The supermodel who was co-host with rapper Ludacris at the Billboard Music Awards in 2015 later updated on Wednesday that she was about to board another flight, but prayed for a smooth journey.
The airline tendered an unreserved apology to passengers for the inconvenience.