Disappearance of male choir after landing at Heathrow had prompted an immigration inquiry and headlines around the world
Ten members of a Nepalese male choir, who sparked a nationwide hunt and an investigation by the UK Borders Agency after they disappeared from Heathrow, have turned up in fine voice after going missing for three days – explaining that they just got lost leaving the airport.
On Tuesday, a coach had travelled the 250 miles to London to bring the choir to the Cornwall Male Voice Choir Festival but, despite the driver spending hours searching for them, they could not be found.
The organisers of the festival – which ends on Monday– with 3,500 singers in more than 60 choirs to keep track of, were also hit by the illness of a key staff member, and the fact a Russian choir was refused an exit visa to travel when the singers were waiting on the runway to board their plane.
The organisers spent hours on the phone trying to work out what had happened to the Nepalese men, first assuming they had missed their flight. They established that all their travel documents and visas were in order, and they had landed at Heathrow and then apparently vanished.
They were reported missing, presumed absconded, an immigration inquiry was launched, and the news caused headlines round the world.
David Peters, who is the joint organiser of the festival, said: "I will advise anyone looking to publicise a festival to lose a Nepalese choir."
Three days later when the choir had already missed its first scheduled appearance, the festival organisers got a call to say the singers had taken a wrong turn out of the airport and were at a house in Wembley. Their coach headed back to London to collect them and the second in their series of planned concerts and workshops went ahead without a hitch.