Passengers aboard a British Airways flight were forced to wait three hours on the tarmac after a crew member accidentally activated the plane's emergency slide. The mistake, which is said to cost £100,000, happened just seconds before the flight from Heathrow to Washington DC was scheduled to depart on Saturday.
The plane, which had approximately 336 passengers aboard, was then attended to by emergency services as travellers were left stuck to their seats for an extra three hours. The incident has been described as a 'brainless act' by a source that spoke to The Sun.
They said: 'Just seconds from take-off, a BA crew member accidentally popped the door and deployed the emergency slide. It was a brainless act, which delayed the flight for three hours and cost around £100,000. Passengers eventually had to exit the plane.'
Yet this blunder is not uncommon for the airline in recent history. Last year, a BA staff member activated the emergency slide on a flight from Heathrow to Brussels, leaving the Airbus A321 flight grounded and eventually cancelled. Travellers endured a similar three-hour wait while another plane was sourced to take them on the one-hour, 15-minute flight to Belgium. Emergency services attended the scene as a precautionary measure.
And in February 2024, a BA captain made a similar mistake, activating the emergency slide on a flight to Romania moments before take-off. The pilot allegedly failed to disarm the plane door when he opened it to pass documents to members of the crew. This resulted in a lengthy delay for passengers aboard the BA886 flight and cost the airline £50,000.
A spokesperson for British Airways said: 'We have apologised to customers for the delay to their journey. Our teams worked hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible.'
