Passengers aboard a London flight destined for Germany were left confused when the plane touched down in Edinburgh by mistake.

The British Airways flight - operated by WDL Aviation on behalf of BA CityFlyer - made the unscheduled arrival on Monday morning after flight plan paperwork was submitted incorrectly.

Travellers took to social media to complain about the diversion.

Passenger Son Tran tweeted to the airline: "Can you please explain how can my morning flight taking off from LCY to Dusseldorf land in Edinburgh?

"While an interesting concept, I don't think anyone on board has signed up for this mystery travel lottery."

The pilot of Flight BA3271 had taken off from London City shortly after 7.30am and followed instructions to fly to the Scottish capital instead of the German city.

After the flight crew was alerted to the mistake, the British Aerospace 146 plane was refuelled and then flown to Dusseldorf, where it touched down more than three-and-a-half hours behind schedule.

An investigation has been launched by both BA and WDL Aviation to find out how the error occurred.

A spokesman from BA told STV News the pilot was not lost at any point and air traffic control authorised the flight route as it had also received the wrong paperwork.

BA stated: "We are working with WDL Aviation, who operated this flight on behalf of British Airways, to establish why the incorrect flight plan was filed.

"We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually."

A spokesperson from WDL Aviation, which was founded in 1974 and based at Cologne/Bonn Airport, added: "We are working closely with the authorities to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up of flight schedules could occur.

"At no time has the safety of passengers been compromised."

Following the blunder, a spokesman from Edinburgh Airport said: "We're a welcoming airport that is always happy to greet visitors from all over the world to our fantastic city, but this was a surprise for us as well as them.

"We were happy to work with the various teams across the airport to help make the trip to Edinburgh a pleasurable, albeit short, one."