A British Airways captain made an unusual blunder on a BA886 flight, when he accidentally activated the emergency slide just seconds before take-off.
As passengers waited patiently in their seats on Saturday morning, the captain wrongly activated the inflatable escape slide, delaying the flight for hours and costing the airline £50,000.
Emergency services rushed to Gate 24E at Heathrow at around 9.55am, where the BA886 flight was ready to leave for its destination of Romania.
It was reported in The Sun that the captain was immediately taken off flying duties, but passengers had to wait more than three hours for another aircraft and pilot.
The pilot allegedly failed to disarm the plane door when he opened it to pass documents to members of the crew.
If he had disarmed the door, the slide would not have been deployed.
A source told The Sun: ‘This is beyond a rookie error. It’s totally baffling to understand.’
British Airways and Heathrow have been contacted by MailOnline for comment.