Humorous that it may have seemed, I am most saddened to come to my conclusion, that while there were mistakes with Operations, the worst part of the story is that neither the flight crew nor the cabin crew really cared about what they do anymore. How could it be that none of them spotted the error, none knew where they were supposed to fly to, despite given some instructions by Operations ?

Didn't the cabin crew know what the flight number was (assuming they thought they were going to Edinburgh), and that the boarding passes had a different one on it ?

Did the flight deck even had a moment of pre-flight briefing wit the cabin crew ?

Did anyone know their work itinerary for that that day ?

Let's see....Wrong flight plan submitted? Yup. Input wrong information into the plane computer? Yup. Pilots don't recognize they're over land and not the English Channel? Yup. What else could possibly go wrong? At least we know it wasn't a 737Max

One of the big problem with airlines is that many crews are not composed of pilots any more, merely computer opetators. Result: garbage in, garbage out, like with computers. a pito is missreading and they crash the plane. An automatic trim malfunction and they crash the plane. Bad training and inability to take back manual control, not bothering to look outside and validate that what they see is what they expect... How many pilots are really passionate about flying and enjoy acrobatic flight or gliding during their days off? A smaller and smaller percentage. Aviation authorities are making the job so procedural and boring, no wonder the real pilots are disappearing.

Wasn't BA. Flight operated by WDL under a wet lease.

Sounds like Douglas Corrigan's excuse in the 1930s. Supposed to fly to California he took off and supposedly his main compass stopped working and he followed the wrong end of the aux compass and landed in Ireland instead.

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard this British Airways flight to ..." Surely it is normal to make some announcement along those lines?