dailynewsnblog
Last week, a 
British Airways Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner had a longer layover than planned at Montreal Trudeau International Airport (YUL) in the Canadian province of Quebec after one of its emergency slides was accidentally deployed while on the ground. Footage of the aftermath of the incident has since emerged on social media, with the slide having collided with a catering truck upon inflation.
While the aircraft had arrived only slightly behind schedule in Canada, its return flight back to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom was subsequently delayed by several hours as a result of this unfortunate occurrence. There were also knock-on effects to the 787’s following flights, with one rotation having to be canceled and another operating with a delay of several hours.
A Delayed Departure
British Airways flight BA94 is a daily service from Montreal back to its main hub at 
London Heathrow Airport. Historical tracking data made available by Flightradar24 shows that, on Friday, September 4, it was operated by a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner registered as G-ZBLA. This aircraft had arrived in Montreal 20 minutes behind schedule on the inbound BA95 flight, touching down at 8:35 PM local time.
It was then supposed to leave Montreal at 10:00 PM that same evening for its overnight return leg back to London. However, as reported by Metro, its departure was delayed when, during the turnaround, its left rear evacuation slide was accidentally inflated, coming into contact with an adjacent catering truck. A BA spokesperson told Metro that a technical error caused the deployment, and they added that:
“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.”
Knock-On Disruption
No injuries are said to have been reported by the dramatic deployment, the aftermath of which can be seen in the video embedded below. However, it did considerably delay an already tight turnaround, with the flight eventually leaving Montreal at 1:30 AM in the early hours of Saturday, September 5, some three hours and 30 minutes later than planned. It was ultimately in the air for under six hours.
Indeed, by the time it touched back down at London Heathrow Airport at 12:14 PM on Saturday, September 5, its delay had been trimmed to two hours and 34 minutes. Still, that was not the end of the operational disruption as far as G-ZBLA was concerned. Indeed, its following rotation, BA189 to Newark Liberty International (EWR) on September 5 and BA188 back to London that night, also had to be canceled.
Presumably in order to allow time for further inspections and repairs to take place, G-ZBLA was instead rostered onto BA267 to Portland (PDX). This service left four hours and one minute late, at 7:41 PM on September 5, reaching Oregon just over 3.5 hours late at 9:13 PM local time. The return leg, BA266, also reached London over three hours late. Now, however, the jet is more or less back on schedule.
Such Incidents Are Rare But Not Unheard Of
Emergency evacuation slides are designed, as their name suggests, to only be used in the most extreme of circumstances. As such, an accidental deployment can be an expensive and time-consuming issue to resolve. While such incidents are rare, the cost of them can add up quickly, with Simple Flying reporting back in March of 2023 that, per IATA data, they cost the industry approximately $20 million a year.
When it comes to coverage of these incidents, British Airways is a name that has appeared several times in recent years. For instance, when a BA flight to Bucharest (OTP) was delayed by such an incident back in February of 2024, Simple Flying reported at the time that this was the airline’s fifth accidental deployment in just over a year. More recently, a similar incident befell a BA Boeing 777 in May of 2026.
