What happened? Luke Harding, 19, looks confused as he takes a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower (Picture: Cavendish)

Normally when you get a cab home after a night out, your priority is stumbling through the front door without waking anyone up, and collapsing into bed.

But after clubbing in Manchester, Luke Harding had different ideas – and decided to book a last-minute flight to Paris alone.

Once he dropped off his friend, the teenager told a taxi driver to take him to the airport.

Later, as his friends were nursing hangovers at home, the 19-year-old was asleep in a toilet at Charles de Gaulle airport. Bless.


Plane stupid: Luke boards his 6am flight (Picture: Cavendish)

When the teenager began posting pictures from the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower, he became a Twitter sensation.



Mr Harding, from Oldham, said: ‘It all started off going for a pint after work with one of my mates. Then one thing led to another and we decided to go to a nightclub.

‘We started to get a bit bored and wanted to head off home. The only thing was, by this time we were well and truly plastered. I found my passport which I’d been using for ID, and an app on my phone was saying something about cheap flights to Paris. It was a spur of the moment thing and seemed like a good idea at the time.’

The one-day excursion, which cost him £300, saw him convince the taxi driver he was a junior doctor going to a convention.

Luke messages bewildered mates from Paris (Picture: Cavendish)

Mr Harding tried to act sober during check-in by speaking as little as possible.

He added: ‘When I first woke up I didn’t know where I was. Then I remembered booking the flight – and thinking “oh s***”.

‘I rang my mum and said “don’t panic but can you pick me up at Manchester airport at 8pm?” Then I told her what I had done and she went mental at me.

‘It was great but it was bloody freezing. I don’t regret it. It’s a funny story to tell my mates for years to come…’