British Airways crew error grounds flight to Brussels, costs airline £100,000

A British Airways (BA) flight from London Heathrow to Brussels was cancelled on Monday, 13 January, after a crew member accidentally deployed the emergency slide on an Airbus A321, rendering the aircraft unusable. The mishap caused a three-hour delay for passengers while a replacement jet was arranged and is estimated to have cost the airline £100,000.

A source highlighted that such errors are rare due to extensive crew training, making this incident particularly surprising. BA apologised to the affected passengers and worked quickly to resolve the issue.

The information appeared first in the British newspaper The Sun and was reproduced in a few other British and US newspapers. However, it was impossible for Aviation24.be to confirm some details:

• The registration of the affected aircraft. It may be A321neo G-NEOY, which did not operate any flight on 13 January
• The registration and flight times of the replacement aircraft. Only two scheduled BA flights operated to Brussels on 13 January: BA388 and BA398, and both arrived on schedule. No BA flight was recorded with a 3-hour delay at Brussels Airport.

This follows a similar incident last year when a BA captain deployed an emergency slide on the ground, delaying another flight to Bucharest.