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Emma Meesseman denied flight to United States due to clerical error, causing a one-day delay

The Washington Mystics forward was denied a flight from Brussels to Frankfurt, Germany, the first part of a two-part journey to the USA because of a spelling error on her boarding pass.

UPDATE on June 26, 2020 at 9:15 AM: Emma Meesseman’s on a plane now!

The original article is below.


Today, Washington Mystics forward Emma Meesseman was supposed to travel from Belgium to the United States. Unfortunately, she won’t be here just yet.

According to Patrick Ceulemans of Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch), Meesseman went to Brussels Airport in Zaventem to take a flight to Frankfurt, Germany earlier in the morning (or overnight in Washington time). However, she was denied from boarding a flight.

Before you start panicking about the reason why the 2019 WNBA Finals MVP couldn’t get to the USA right now, let’s head straight to the star herself. Meesseman tweeted in Dutch that “there’s nothing to see with the coronavirus or a travel ban, but rather a very difficult last name.”

In Ceuleman’s article, the last name on Meesseman’s ticket was misspelled, causing the error and complications. After some phone calls, we can expect her to arrive here in the DMV very soon.

Meesseman’s name has often been misspelled by American outlets as “Meeseman,” so this is quite possibly how her name was spelled on a plane ticket. However, I’m not sure how common this is in Belgium and the Netherlands, where there should be more people named Meesseman, not just in Ieper, but from Brussels to Antwerp, and even Amsterdam too. I’ll take Emma’s word for it that her name must be misspelled by a LOT of people worldwide, but I digress.

Meesseman also explained what’s ahead for her with the Mystics after she arrives. “I still don’t know exactly how it all will go. ... All I know is that when I arrive, I’ll be tested for COVID-19 and then have to spend seven days in quarantine. The team already told me in the first week that I can train with the necessary precautions.”

The Mystics will have Meesseman, but they will not have Natasha Cloud and LaToya Sanders, two starters from their championship team last year. They still appear to be one of the top contenders for the 2020 WNBA championship for now. But at first glance, it seems that Meesseman will have to play a larger starting role than some might have anticipated before the pandemic struck last winter.