British Airways Flight Delayed For Hours After Emergency Slide Accidentally Deploys Onto Ground Truck | Sahara Reporters

The aircraft, a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner with registration G-ZBLA, was scheduled to fly from Montreal (YUL) to London Heathrow (LHR).

A British Airways flight from Montreal to London Heathrow was delayed by about three and a half hours on Friday night after an emergency evacuation slide was inadvertently deployed while the aircraft was preparing for departure.

According to aviation publication PYOK, the incident occurred as British Airways flight BA94 was preparing to leave Montréal–Trudeau International Airport, with a ground-service truck positioned beside an open cabin door.

The aircraft, a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner with registration G-ZBLA, was scheduled to fly from Montreal (YUL) to London Heathrow (LHR).

An aircraft evacuation slide is designed to automatically disarm when a door is opened from the outside by ground personnel, even if it has inadvertently been left in the armed position.

The circumstances of the incident therefore suggested that the affected door may have been opened from inside the aircraft while the slide was still armed.

An inadvertent slide deployment (ISD) can pose a serious safety risk, particularly when ground equipment or workers are positioned near the aircraft door.

Video of Friday’s incident showed the evacuation slide deploying onto the catering truck beside the aircraft. The truck was not toppled and no workers appeared to have been struck.

Despite the incident, the flight was not cancelled and passengers were eventually allowed to continue their journey on the same aircraft.

Engineers would typically remove the deployed slide and place placards on the affected door indicating that it could not be used as an emergency exit.

Depending on the number of passengers booked on the flight, some passengers could potentially have been offloaded to comply with regulations governing the number of available emergency exits required for a given passenger load.

British Airways has experienced other inadvertent slide deployments. According to Airbus, such incidents occur frequently across the global aviation industry and can be caused by factors including fatigue, unfamiliarity with a particular aircraft door mechanism and inexperienced crew members confusing door-opening procedures.

Following a series of inadvertent slide deployments, British Airways introduced additional procedures based on the Japanese “point and call” method.

Under the procedure, cabin crew point at the aircraft door several times while verbally confirming the action they are performing. The system is intended to ensure that crew members focus exclusively on correctly arming or disarming the door.

Commenting on the incident, a British Airways spokesperson said: “We have apologised to customers for the delay to their journey. Our teams worked hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible.”