Eurowings accidentally loaded a bag into the cargo hold of a plane that wasn’t supposed to be on there, leading to a diversion… and then another diversion. The rules are the rules, but talk about a major pain for all involved…
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Eurowings flight diverts to Toulouse, then Cologne
aeroTELEGRAPH reports on an incident that happened on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, involving Eurowings flight EW9503, scheduled to operate the 896-mile flight from Ibiza (IBZ) to Dusseldorf (DUS). The Airbus A320 with the registration code D-ABZN was scheduled to depart at 6:10PM and arrive at 8:35PM.
The plane took off a bit behind schedule, at 7:35PM, and then started its journey north. However, shortly after takeoff, it was somehow discovered that a piece of luggage had been loaded onto the plane that didn’t actually belong to a passenger. As a Lufthansa Group spokesperson described this, it was “due to a loading error.”
Ever since the Pan Am Lockerbie crash in 1988, it has been a common practice that luggage has to match passengers onboard. Under EU regulations, “if the passenger concerned is not on board the aircraft, the checked baggage assigned to their boarding pass shall be considered unaccompanied,” and can’t be transported.
So the airline then “immediately arranged for a landing at the nearest airport for safety reasons,” which was Toulouse (TLS), in this case. The plane landed there 1hr2min after it departed, at 8:37PM local time.
At that point, a safety inspection had to be carried out on the aircraft, which took a long time. Finally at 11:20PM, nearly three hours later, the plane was once again able to take off for Germany.
However, at this point there was another problem — Dusseldorf’s airport has a curfew, and that had been missed at this point. As a result, the plane instead flew to Cologne (CGN), which has 24/7 operations. The plane landed there 1hr33min later, at 12:53AM.
The airline then arranged ground transportation to Dusseldorf for all 156 passengers, so I imagine they finally arrived at their intended destination somewhere around 3-4AM. Ouch.
The rules are the rules, what are you gonna do?
There’s no indication that there was any ill intent with the extra bag being loaded, and it seems like this was truly an error. Mistakes happen, especially when you consider the volume of flights that operate around the globe on a daily basis.
On the surface, it seems sort of ridiculous to divert once you’re already airborne, given what a logistical pain this ended up being. At the same time, the rules are the rules, so it’s not like anyone had much of a choice here. A bag being carried without a matching passenger violates regulations, and if it’s discovered, a diversion to the nearest practical airport is the only option.
What exacerbated the issues here was that this was an already delayed evening flight, so the curfew in Dusseldorf turned this from a pretty big inconvenience to a huge inconvenience. Obviously I feel bad for the passengers, though I also feel bad for the crew, since this was outside their control, and I imagine they probably had to deal with some pretty frustrated passengers.
Bottom line
A Eurowings flight diverted twice after an extra bag was accidentally loaded onto the plane. Regulations require that bags match passengers, so this was discovered once airborne, and prompted a diversion to the nearest airport. A security check was then carried out on the aircraft, before it could continue its journey.
However, at this point it was too late at night, so Dusseldorf’s curfew had kicked in, meaning the flight had to divert to Cologne, with passengers then being sent on buses to their destination. Passengers landed in Cologne over four hours after they were supposed to land in Dusseldorf, so when all was said and done, I imagine they were delayed by well over six hours in reaching their intended destination.
What do you make of this Eurowings double diversion?
This is classic German being German.