A flight attendant accidentally activated an emergency slide just before takeoff, delaying departure by 6 hours

• A British Airways flight was delayed for hours after its emergency slide was accidentally inflated.
• The Sun reported that it was deployed by a flight attendant on her first trip on an Airbus A350.

A British Airways cabin crew member accidentally activated an emergency slide as the plane was heading for the runway, delaying passengers for hours.

A photo obtained by The Sun, which first reported Sunday's incident, shows the plane at London Heathrow Airport surrounded by emergency vehicles, with the inflated slide deployed from a rear door.

According to the report, it was the cabin crew member's first flight on an Airbus A350, and she was sent back to training as a result.

The aircraft had departed the stand and was taxiing to the runway moments when its slide was mistakenly inflated, per The Sun.

The flight to Austin, Texas eventually departed about six hours late, data from Flightradar24 shows.

It's understood that passengers were given refreshment vouchers to use in the airport while waiting for a replacement plane.

A British Airways repesentative told Insider that the plane returned to the stand and passengers disembarked before continuing their journey later the same day, and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

The Sun reported that replacing the slide cost the airline more than $60,000.

It's the second such incident affecting British Airways this year.

A slide on a Boeing 777 bound for Lagos, Nigeria in January deployed by mistake just as it left the stand at Heathrow, the Evening Standard reported.