An Airbus A220 operating as a Delta Flight 3248 from Pittsburgh International Airport to Salt Lake City International Airport was delayed when a veteran flight attendant inadvertently deployed the forward left emergency evacuation slide while the door was still in the armed configuration.
Since the slide inflated onto the jet-bridge, passengers were trapped onboard the plane for nearly one hour while engineers had to disconnect the slide and recover the boarding ramp.
The flight departed nearly four hours late, causing many travelers to miss their connecting flights and forcing the airline to compensate them with overnight accommodation.
Financially, the mishap is believed to have caused the airline anywhere between $50,000 $100,000 just to repack or replace the slide, with the total expenses, including delays, accommodations, and crew repositioning, hitting six figures.
The company is currently taking part in an internal investigation, and the attendant is expected to undergo vigorous retraining again to avoid such incidents from taking place in the future. Passengers were seen expressing their dismay over the matter, as it was a mistake that could have been avoided in the first place.
Many question the staff’s hiring, wondering if this was normal behavior or just an unlucky day for those on board the flight.