A BUNGLING British Airways captain who wrongly activated the emergency slide was grounded seconds before take-off.
The experienced pilot’s extraordinary blunder delayed the flight for hours and cost the airline £50,000.
His passengers were strapped in their seats and waiting to go when he deployed the inflatable escape route.
Emergency services rushed to Gate 24E at Heathrow as flight BA886 was leaving for Romania.
The captain was taken off flying duties immediately, while the passengers waited more than three hours before they left in another aircraft with a different pilot.
Photos of the incident given to The Sun show airport firefighters surrounding the Airbus A320.
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The pilot failed to disarm the plane door when he opened it to pass documents to ground crew.
Had he done so, the emergency slide would not have deployed.
A source said: “The captain of all people would have known the safety rules around opening doors.
“This is beyond a rookie error. It’s totally baffling to understand.”
The flight, scheduled to depart at 9.55am on Saturday, did not leave until 1.15pm.
BA said: “We apologised to customers and arranged a replacement aircraft to ensure they were able to continue their journey.”
