What does 'flight attendants arm your doors' mean? Door ripped off BA flight

The door of a British Airways flight was ripped clean off at Cape Town International Airport, Yesterday.

The incident, which is being blamed on a 'breakdown in communication', resulted in the plane being taken out of service on Wednesday evening, South African time.

The Boeing 777 was reportedly still connected to an air bridge when it began pushing back from the gate.

The airline said that it has made alternate arrangements for passengers to be flown to London.

"We have apologised to our customers for the slight delay to their departure from Cape Town due to an issue with the original aircraft. Our customers have since been sent safely on their way to London," read a statement from BA.

British Airways Boeing 777-300ER - Cape Town International Airport International Terminal - 26 January 2022.

"That'll Buff Right Out!" pic.twitter.com/3pB6p55t3g

— Ivan Leon (@IvanLeonZA) January 26, 2022

Website The South African reported that there was some knock-on delay to other passengers on international airlines and an investigation is underway.

Cape Town airport officials reported that all passengers had disembarked and nobody was hurt during the incident.

The aircraft which had recently arrived from London was due to fly a return service to Heathrow. This had to be canned.

Arm your doors

You may have heard the ominous-sounding instruction for cabin crew to "arm your doors".

This has nothing to do with placing guards on the exits or that your aircrew may be locked and loaded. The instruction "arm your doors" refers to the firing mechanism that deploys the inflatable evacuation slide built into aircraft doors.

there are 40-50 Inadvertent Slide Deployments a year. Photo / 123RF

Opening without 'disarming' will result in an 'Inadvertent Slide Deployments'.

That might sound like a lot of fun, but it's a headache for airlines and passengers. ISDs are a lot more frequent than you think too.

According to manufacturers Airbus, there are around 30-40 per year.

"The minimum cost of an event involving a 90 minute ground delay is estimated at around 11,000 USD ($17,000). If the ISD leads to a flight cancellation and a requirement to accommodate passengers in hotels, the cost can rise as high as 200,000 USD ($303,000)."

If attached to an air bridge it can cause the door to be ripped off and block exits, taking planes and docking bays out of service.

Airlines have different disciplinary measures for crew who trigger an ISD, for some it could be grounds for dismissal.

In August 2010 a JetBlue steward intentionally caused an ISDin a spectacular resignation.

Veteran steward Steven Slater had reportedly had enough of an abusive passenger, and quit on the spot. Opening the exit door he used the emergency slide to escape, grabbing a beer from the service trolley as he went.

The Daily Mirror quoted his parting words as: "I've been in this business 20 years. And that's it, I'm done."