Doh! British Airways crew member makes $200k mistake after accidentally deploying emergency slide

A British Airways plane had to be taken out of service after a crew member accidentally set off the emergency slide. The incident occurred at London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday (Tuesday NZT) as the Airbus A321 was on the ground being readied for service. No passengers had boarded the flight to Belgium, but while they were at the gate, a crew member accidentally set off the slide. The Sun newspaper claims the error cost up to £100,000 (NZ$218,000) and delayed passengers by three hours as a replacement plane was found. In a statement, the airline apologised for the delay as “teams worked hard to arrange a replacement aircraft so customers were able to travel with us as planned”. The airline has quite a lot of history in accidentally deploying the emergency slide. Aviation site Simply Flying counted up to five similar instances in just a year. In February 2004, a British Airways captain at London Heathrow allegedly accidentally activated the slide moments before take-off. The doors had been closed and armed when the crew wanted to move some excess carry-on bags into the hold. The captain opened the doors but failed to disarm them causing the slide to automatically deploy.<br/>