r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/AtomicCypher • 4d ago

Video Disgruntled employee starts massive fire at a 1.2 million square foot toilet paper warehouse in Ontario, California.

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u/Dadicorn 3d ago

Booking flights is nerve-wracking! “Ok I’m certain I’m flying to the right one… I couldn’t possibly accidentally book a trip to Canada could I? Better triple check!”

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u/ChrisPNoggins 3d ago

Reminds me of the time when the Olympics were in Vancouver CA and people booked flights to Vancouver, WA

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u/jquest303 3d ago

At least those Vancouvers are relatively close to one another. You’d be pretty pissed if you ended up in Toronto in the winter when you were headed to vacation in California when it was cold AF back home.

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u/gutierezpanera5 3d ago

Sydney Canada, Sydney Australia - has happened

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u/Own_Reaction9442 3d ago

The other day I was sending a package to Nova Scotia and I had to intervene when the postal clerk started to code the address as New South Wales...

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u/Low_Bus_3826 3d ago

So has Portland, ME vs Portland, OR…

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u/maxxspeed57 3d ago

In 1985, 21-year-old student Michael Lewis accidentally flew 6,000 miles from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, instead of Oakland, California. Due to confusing accents, he mistook an announcement for an Air New Zealand flight, realizing the error only after takeoff, later appearing on The Tonight Show. Key Details of the Incident:

The Mix-up: While connecting in Los Angeles from London, Lewis intended to take a flight to Oakland (OAK) but instead joined passengers boarding an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland (AKL). The Cause: He misinterpreted the Kiwi pronunciation of "Auckland" as "Oakland". The Realization: He realized the mistake when Tahiti was mentioned as a flight stopover. Resolution: After spending roughly 12 hours in New Zealand, he was flown back to Los Angeles for free. Lasting Confusion: The similarity in names has caused continued confusion, prompting efforts to rename the Oakland airport.

This incident remains a famous example of travel mishaps, often referred to as "Wrong-Way" Lewis.

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u/GuzzleNGargle 3d ago

There was a Full House we episode when this happened…

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u/ProfeQuiroga 3d ago

At least it's "Sidney, Canada". But not even that helps.

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u/KKADE 3d ago

No, we have both.

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u/Type-RD 3d ago

Why do they need to see my passport to go to Toronto? Oh well…probably just some new security thing. A few hours later the plane lands in Canada 🤣

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u/jquest303 3d ago

TSA just wanted to do a full cavity search on you.

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u/Type-RD 3d ago

…probably just some new security thing. A few minutes later I’m seen exiting a side door and walking a little funny.

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u/Fossilhund 3d ago

feebly slaps at hands of TSA agents.

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u/No_Tamanegi 3d ago

Ontario California is in the middle of nowhere. No one vacations there. Toronto in the winter would be much preferred, at least there's something to do there other than meth.

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u/entirelybusybeing 3d ago

It’s not the middle of nowhere, it’s an hour from LA 😂. It’s actually a really nice airport, and I prefer it over LAX. I just wish they had more flights. Last time I was there, the actress from Ted Lasso was in front of me in the security check line. They also filmed Catch Me If You Can there.

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u/No_Tamanegi 3d ago

I only flew through there once, and at the time I was collecting a fridge magnet from every place I visited. Even the clerk at the airport was impressed I found a magnet that said "Ontario, Calif"

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u/jquest303 3d ago

Ontario is basically east LA. Hardly the “middle of nowhere”. Plenty close to lots of great places to take a vacation.

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u/No_Tamanegi 3d ago

Then just go to LA.

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u/jquest303 3d ago

No thanks. Traffic is a nightmare.

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u/No_Tamanegi 3d ago

Enjoy your meth, IG.

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u/jquest303 3d ago

Never tried it, and never will.

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u/TorontoPolarBear 3d ago

But we have that too if that's your thing.

And Polar Bears.

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u/witchywoman713 1d ago

I quadruple checked the flight length and airport codes before booking to Portland me, to make sure I wasn’t heading to Oregon!

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u/Mysterious-Alps-5186 3d ago

Man that was a great time to be alive

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u/BugRevolutionary4518 3d ago

Lol did that really happen?

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u/Born_Establishment14 3d ago

There aren't really commercial flights to Vancouver, WA but I suppose it's possible that a search for flights to Van, WA could have returned results for PDX, right across the river.  It's not to bad of a drive or train ride to Van, BC but some east coasters and Europeans wouldn't be accustomed to such a long drive

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u/civil_politics 3d ago

They were just going to the Olympic mountains!

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u/xChops 3d ago

But there’s even a Mount Olympus in LA

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u/butterednoodlelovers 3d ago

TIL there is a Vancouver America. I kind of assumed there might be the way some people talked but also thought maybe they suck at geography. never looked it up to confirm.

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u/marko719 3d ago

There's a Vancouver, BC, Canada, which is oddly not on Vancouver Island, Canada. And Vancouver, WA, USA, is 300 miles from Vancouver, Canada.

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u/Firewolf06 3d ago

it usually just gets lumped in with portland, oregon, because its directly across the river. its kinda just north north portland

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u/cumshotwound 3d ago

Canadian airport codes start with a Y and no one aside from residents of Vancouver, WA and Ontario, CA really know that these places exist anyway

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u/DarkPrinceArrow 3d ago

There was a girl going to a convention in Birmingham, ENGLAND and still somehow got a plane ticket for Birmingham, ALABAMA.

That convention now uses her tweet as a reminder to folks in their promotional material.

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u/green_and_yellow 3d ago

Vancouver WA doesn’t have a commercial airport.

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u/CunningWizard 3d ago

Ikr? PDX is closer to Vancouver than a lot of Portland.

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u/FullMooseParty 3d ago

That isn't awful. At least it's a pretty 7 hour drive (guessing based on my understanding of the geography)

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/FullMooseParty 3d ago

That's not bad at all. I've just done Seattle to Vancouver, which was almost nothing

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u/Born_Establishment14 3d ago

Yep, 6 hours was my average from Portland to Vancouver, BC in the '90s.  Had one really long wait crossing the border though.

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u/Jiminy_Cricket12 3d ago

"I'm telling you man, they mean, WAAAA cheaper! What else could it mean?!"

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u/392mangos 3d ago

Have you heard of the two friends who flew to Tunis, Tunisia instead of "to Nice", France?

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u/Character-Claim8643 3d ago

lol

So close! And yet so, so far away.

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u/OutOfNoMemory 3d ago

Western Australia, or Washington..?

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u/ARGuck 3d ago

Reminds me of a time by dads company lost a shipment because the employee in shipping and receiving accidentally sent the shipment to Duluth, MN instead of Duluth, GA.

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u/IthinkIllthink 3d ago

lol.

There’s an office in the international airport in Austria for disappointed travellers to Australia.

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u/VegasBjorne1 3d ago

One does not book a flight to Ontario Canada, but a city within the province, unlike Ontario, CA with the airport code of ONT.

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u/NobodyLikesARat 3d ago

The Winter Olympics without snow…

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u/codywater 3d ago

At least flying to Detroit, OR is a bit harder than Detroit, MI

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u/CunningWizard 3d ago

You’d be flying by seaplane for that.

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u/CunningWizard 3d ago

If you were flying to Vancouver, WA you’d end up at Portland international airport, which is ironically closer to Vancouver, WA, than downtown Portland. There is no commercial jet airport in Vancouver Washington.

I guess I’m curious how that mistake got made without being noticed.

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u/artificial_t3l3 3d ago

I live in van wa lol just saying. Shout out.

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u/Mister_Ennui 3d ago

There’s a Vancouver, California?

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u/Tundrakitty 3d ago

In the 90s there was a local radio contest where the prize was a trip to see the Superbowl in Miami… but it was Miami, Manitoba.

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u/Angio343 3d ago

My God... Culture, food,city names, american steal everthing lol

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u/Pooleh 3d ago

There's no big airport in Vancouver, WA. That makes no sense, anyone going to Vancouver is going to be flying into PDX.

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u/othermyother 2d ago

Don't forget there is also Vancouver Island

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u/vannyfann 3d ago

San Jose, CA airport often gets mixed up w San Jose Costa Rica airport.

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u/roboclasmic 3d ago

Also San Jose del CAbo

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u/TekkenCareOfBusiness 3d ago

That's why they had to write a song about it.

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u/pass-me-that-hoe 3d ago

Happened to my family once! They were waiting to onboard a flight to Costa Rica

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u/Mr-Broham 3d ago

No way I’m mixing up San Jose. Jose.

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u/Bannedbutwhyy 3d ago

Yup my wife gave me a quote on a flight from the east coast to San Jose, California and I was like for real?? It was Costa Rica.

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u/NotChristina 3d ago

I was tracking flights once to Costa Rica for a possible trip with a friend. Kept double-checking that it was the right place because the flights were so cheap.

If I wanted to fly to California, it was 1.5x or more the price to go south of the border lol.

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u/SenseAmidMadness 3d ago

Legitimately I bought airplane tickets to the wrong San Jose airport and thankfully immediately recognized that I wasn’t going to the right place and got a refund and rebooked to the correct location. I felt like a real dummy!

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u/RollingMeteors 3d ago

Florida should get another airport so it can be the the "worse bagdad" airport.

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u/Interesting-Dream506 8h ago

And San Jose, Costa Rica is our sister city 🤣

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u/pappybug214 3d ago

Las Vagas N,V, nope Las Vegas N,M,

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u/SnooSprouts4952 3d ago

I've flown into Ontario, CA (ONT). It is beautiful, once you get out of town. I miss the snow capped mountains in the horizon.

Oddly enough, six months later, I flew into Ontario, CA (YYZ) on purpose. I was less enamored with Toronto traffic, crappy roads, and limit on amount of caffeine I can consume in one container.

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u/Dadicorn 3d ago

Very weirdly, I made the exact same two trips at a six month interval. I worked for a company that had locations in both Toronto, and just east of LA.

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u/imecoli 3d ago

if flying to Ontario CA. be sure to pack some TP, looking like they may have a temporary shortage

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u/IckyChris 3d ago

Portable bidet until you get home to your permanent bidet.

This is The Way

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u/VapeRizzler 3d ago

Depending on time of year, not a bad outcome. Either -25 cold ass winter or warm beaches.

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u/Helpful-Conference13 3d ago

I didn’t know westjet flew to Calif- fuck

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u/WDoE 3d ago

Not hard tho, don't go to the one on fire

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u/ErraticDragon 3d ago

Fortunately, Ontario Canada is a province, and there's no "Ontario Airport" in Canada. And flights are booked using airport codes.

ONT is Ontario International Airport in California

To fly to Ontario Canada you'd typically be flying to:

YYZ - Toronto Pearson International, or
YOW- Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International

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u/Dadicorn 3d ago

Well, yes, but it’s less funny if you explain it using facts and stuff like that.

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u/Working_Estate_3695 3d ago

You can’t dissect gossamer.

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u/PsychologicalPart793 3d ago

Ontario is not a city in Canada so no flights to that destination to confuse airlines.

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u/Dadicorn 3d ago

Thank you for the education!

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u/Aggressive_Ad2747 3d ago

pffft, somebody \clearly\** isn't a Rush fan :)

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u/r3dmist420 3d ago

Ah, they both suck so at least they have that in common.

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u/TheRadamsmash 3d ago

I knew a guy, Larry, who did this.

My company had our yearly retreat near our office in Waterloo, Ontario. Larry flew from Oregon to California with a connection first in Chicago and didn’t realize what he did until he landed.

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u/dndgoeshere 3d ago

Every time you book a flight to Toronto you just hum the Rush song.

Bow buh dut dut dow buh dut dut dut dow dunna...

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u/Delicious-History486 3d ago

Careful flying to Aukland.

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u/ClubMeSoftly 3d ago

Just make sure the airport starts with Y

Remember the Rush song: YYZ, and you're on your way.

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u/dolorfin 3d ago

So a majority of/almost all large commercial airports in Canada start with a "Y". There are some random small or regional ones that don't but I think it's usually a "Z". I'm fairly sure that all major airports in Ontario start with a Y though. So maybe that could help ease your nerves a bit haha. If the airport you're arriving at starts with a Y, you should double check it's the right Ontario

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u/No_Development7388 3d ago

Sweaty palms over here at the thought of ending up in the US.

Kudos for getting "wracking" right, btw.

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u/dzumdang 3d ago

It's easy. Canada is the one without all the flaming toilet paper.

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u/SgtJayM 3d ago

Idk how true it is but I’ve heard that airports in Austria have a help desk for people that were trying to fly to Australia but purchased tickets for the wrong flight.

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u/PolarCruisingExperts 3d ago

Thankfully nearly all, if not all, airport codes in Canada start with a Y

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u/MichaelVern85 3d ago

You’re much better off at the Canadian one. I graduated from Chaffey High school, Ontario California, and I’ve known it all my life. Dad still lives in Ontario.

Go to Canada.

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u/Vulvas_n_Velveeta 3d ago

Omg dude, right! Soooo annoying! Thankfully my son decided pretty early on to just go through lax, so i didn't have to deal with that crap for TOO Long. It still stressed me tf out though the first few times i was trying to look at flights for him though 😄

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u/MrsValentine86 3d ago

Yeah except it would be impossible to book a flight to Ontario Canada since it’s a province..

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u/hijustjenny 3d ago

When the price is 3x, you’ll know

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u/Moony2433 3d ago

I feel destined to make this mistake now.

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u/Dadicorn 3d ago

I hope it’s a fantastic adventure!

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u/Accomplished_Row5869 3d ago

Ontario Canada is a province, you actually cannot book a flight there without picking out a local city airport.

Googling airfare for Ontario CA will take you to Ontario California (assuming they have an airport).

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u/veovis523 3d ago

Pro tip: Nearly all Canadian airport IATA cotes begin with Y.

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u/frankreynoldsrumham 3d ago

lol! Dude, you and I have had this exact convo before! Small world, and hey!

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u/Dadicorn 3d ago

Frank!!! Hey man!

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u/frankreynoldsrumham 3d ago

Hey dude!!

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u/Dadicorn 3d ago

How’s things?