LONDON- British Airways (BA) flight BA94 from Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) was delayed by around three and a half hours after an emergency slide accidentally deployed during departure preparations.
The British Airways Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner was being prepared for departure when the slide opened onto a ground service truck positioned beside the aircraft door, creating a potentially dangerous situation for ground personnel.
British Airways Flight Delayed
The incident occurred on Friday night as British Airways flight BA94 was preparing to depart Montreal for London. A ground service truck was positioned alongside the open cabin door when the emergency slide suddenly deployed.
According to PYOK, video of the incident shows the slide inflating onto the catering truck. The truck remained upright, and there were no reports of injuries to workers or passengers.
Emergency evacuation slides are designed to deploy when an aircraft door is opened while the door’s slide system remains armed. Ground personnel normally open the door from the outside only after the slide has been disarmed.
How the Slide Could Have Deployed
Aircraft doors incorporate mechanisms intended to prevent an evacuation slide from deploying when ground personnel opens the door from outside.
When the door is opened externally, the slide should automatically become disarmed even if it was mistakenly left in the armed position.
The circumstances surrounding BA94 therefore indicate that the door may have been opened from inside the aircraft while the slide remained armed. The available information does not establish exactly how the inadvertent deployment occurred.
An inadvertent slide deployment, commonly referred to as an ISD, can create a significant safety hazard when ground equipment or personnel are positioned near the aircraft door.
A rapidly inflating slide can strike nearby equipment or people. In this case, the catering truck absorbed the deployment without toppling or causing an apparent injury.
British Airways BA94 Flight Details
- Airline: British Airways (BA)
- Aircraft: Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner
- Registration: G-ZBLA
- Flight: BA94
- Route: Montreal (YUL) to London Heathrow (LHR)
The incident caused a delay of approximately three and a half hours, but British Airways did not cancel the flight.
Damaged Slide Did Not Cancel the Flight
British Airways did not have the equipment or resources in Montreal to immediately replace the deployed slide. However, the aircraft was still able to operate under specific conditions.
Engineers could remove the deployed slide and place placards on the affected door to indicate that the exit was unavailable for an emergency evacuation.
Aircraft evacuation requirements can also affect the number of passengers permitted to remain onboard when an exit becomes unavailable. Depending on the passenger load and applicable requirements, some travelers could have been required to leave the aircraft.
The available information does not indicate whether passengers were ultimately offloaded from BA94 because of the unavailable exit.
British Airways Has Introduced Extra Door Procedures
Inadvertent slide deployments are not unique to British Airways. Airbus has previously noted that such events occur frequently across the global aviation industry.
Common contributing factors include crew fatigue, unfamiliarity with a particular aircraft door configuration and inexperienced crew members confusing the procedures for operating a door.
British Airways has previously responded to a series of inadvertent slide deployments by introducing additional procedures based on the Japanese point-and-call method.
Under the procedure, cabin crew members point toward the aircraft door while verbally calling out the actions they are performing. The technique is designed to keep the crew member focused on the specific task of arming or disarming the door.
British Airways Responds to the Delay
British Airways apologised to passengers affected by the disruption and said its teams worked to get the flight operating as quickly as possible.
A British Airways spokesperson said the airline had apologised to customers for the delay and that its teams worked hard to get them on their way as quickly as possible.
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