British Airways flight faces hours of delay after emergency slide deployment at Heathrow

(MENAFN) A British Airways flight scheduled to depart from London’s Heathrow Airport to Brussels is delayed for nearly three hours on Monday morning after a crewmember accidentally deploys the aircraft’s emergency slide. The incident causes significant disruption, leaving passengers waiting for an extended period.

A spokesperson for British Airways explains the situation to Fox Business Digital, saying, “We apologize to customers for the delay, and our teams work hard to arrange a replacement aircraft so customers can travel with us as planned.” The spokesperson assures that the airline makes every effort to minimize the impact on passengers’ travel plans, despite the unexpected setback.

Fortunately, there are no passengers aboard the plane at the time of the incident, and emergency services are called to the scene as a precautionary measure, in line with standard operating procedures for such situations.

A source familiar with the incident reveals to The Sun that the crewmember’s mistake is considered a “basic error” but one that comes with hefty consequences. The source notes, “It’s a minimum £100,000 mistake and knocks out services for the rest of the day. This error is not easy to achieve.” The slip-up leads to further operational disruptions throughout the day, highlighting the costly nature of such blunders in aviation.

MENAFN15012025000045016755ID1109093044