It wouldn't surprise me if someone did get fired. I just think about how there is so much repetition in the daily life of someone who works in the boarding process that the times I have been there they don't really seem to be paying too much attention to what you are handing them. Perhaps they kind of depend on the computer to do it for them the same way that all of us rely on GPS rather than having some idea where we are going when we drive.
It does seem a bit silly that the passenger would be so oblivious as to what was going on around him though. Maybe he was one of those guys that we frequently see that has his Beats by Dre headphones on all the time and isn't paying attention to their surroundings at all.
What bothers me about this article (not yours the original story) is that the flights to Antarctica are normally on cargo planes that go there with scientists and equipment/supplies. How in the fuck did you not know you are on a cargo plane? When did they start doing normal planes? I understand that Antartica is run by different countries including Canada. traveling back and forth may vary due to the time of the year but every time i see a documentary about Antarctica I'm always seeing cargo planes.
I don't think that he actually made it all the way to Antarctica and the original article doesn't really indicate that he did. I embellished a little bit as far as that part of the story is concerned for entertainment purposes / laughs. What more likely happened was they had to change airplanes somewhere in South America and at this point he was well aware of his mistake.