A British Airways flight from London Heathrow to Austin, Texas, was delayed by five hours on Sunday after a new cabin crew member accidentally deployed the emergency slide. The incident occurred on Flight BA191, moments before the Airbus A350 was scheduled to depart.
The crew member, working her first flight, opened the plane door, triggering the slide's deployment. Emergency services, including firefighters and police, rushed to Terminal 5, believing there was an urgent situation. The aircraft was surrounded by emergency vehicles before it was determined to be a mistake.
Passengers disembarked normally as engineers removed the deployed slide from the tarmac. A replacement aircraft was arranged, and the original plane was towed back to the stand for inspection. British Airways apologised for the inconvenience and provided refreshment vouchers.
The crew member was reportedly stood down from her duties and sent back for retraining. In a statement, British Airways said: 'The aircraft returned to stand and customers disembarked normally. We arranged a replacement aircraft for them to continue their journey the same day and have apologised for the inconvenience caused.'
This is the second such incident in months; in January, a new employee on a Boeing 777 to Lagos, Nigeria, inadvertently triggered the evacuation procedure, causing a four-hour delay. In that case, the rookie was replaced and the flight continued with a substitute aircraft.
