British Airways Flight Delayed After Crewmember Deploys Emergency Slide

LONDON, U.K. — A British Airways crewmember accidentally deployed an emergency slide on Monday morning, causing a nearly three-hour delay for a flight scheduled to depart from Heathrow Airport to Brussels, the airline confirmed.

The incident occurred before passengers boarded the aircraft, and no injuries were reported. Emergency services responded as a precautionary measure, according to a British Airways spokesperson.

“We apologized to customers for the delay and our teams worked hard to arrange a replacement aircraft so customers were able to travel with us as planned,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox Business Digital.

A source familiar with the incident described the error as “the most basic of mistakes” but one with significant financial consequences. “It’s a minimum £100,000 mistake and knocked out services for the rest of the day,” the source said. “This error is not easy to achieve.”

The flight eventually departed within three hours of its scheduled time, the airline confirmed. British Airways did not disclose the identity of the crewmember involved or provide further details about the investigation into the incident.