The plane from London was due to land on the Greek island of Kefalonia, but ended up in Thessaloniki instead. After a two hour delay, the plane eventually departed for Kefalonia again.

According to Sunday Times journalist Kate Mansey, who was on-board the flight, the reason given to the passengers for the delay was that it was too dark to land at the correct destination:

On a @flyryanair flight that has just landed in the WRONG Greek island. Excuse? "Too dark" to land in correct airport. Furious passengers.

— Kate Mansey (@KateMansey) May 13, 2013

The airline has put the incident down to “runway restrictions” related to night-time landings at the Kefalonia airport, and has said future flights will be rescheduled to avoid a repeat.

The Ryanair flight is far from the first plane to have ended up in the wrong airport, however.

In July last year a C-17 US Air Force transport plane landed at a wrong airport in Tampa, on a runway less than half the size usually required by the massive craft. The intended runway was around four miles away. A report earlier this year put the wrong landing down to “fatigue, complacency and a lack of flight discipline” from the young pilot. The incident was captured on video:

While on the election trail in 2007, Barack Obama’s plane landed in Des Moines, Iowa instead of its intended Cedar Rapids destination. The future President was an hour late for a scheduled college rally as a result, putting the delay down to a ‘mix-up’.

Speaking after a commercial flight’s unexpected arrival at a Lousiana airport, the airport's manager Sam Larsh said “this has happened here three times in the last 15 years or so. It's an easy mistake to make.'