A British Airways pilot activated an emergency slide in a “rookie” error before take off.
The blunder delayed a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Romania and reportedly cost the airline £50,000. BA said it apologised to passengers and arranged a replacement jet.
Passengers were buckled in and ready to go when the escape slide was deployed. Instead of taking to the air, travellers were left grounded as emergency services rushed to flight BA886 at Gate 24E.
They were forced to wait over three hours before continuing their journey on another plane, captained by a different pilot. Flight BA886’s pilot was removed from flying duties, according to The Sun.
It reports that the pilot failed to disarm the Airbus A320’s door when he opened it in order to hand documents over to ground staff.
If he had disarmed the door, the emergency slide wouldn’t have deployed.
A source told the publication: “The captain of all people would have known the safety around opening the doors.
“This is beyond a rookie error. It’s totally baffling to understand.”
A British Airways spokesperson said: “We apologised to customers and arranged a replacement aircraft to ensure they were able to continue their journey.”
It was meant to depart at 9.55am on Saturday (February 3), but the flight didn’t take off until 1.15pm, according to The Sun.
