All passengers aboard a flight at Manchester Airport in England were reported safe after a passenger opened the emergency exit door in an attempt to reach the bathroom.
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Pakistan International Airlines Flight 702 was cleared for takeoff for an on-time departure from Manchester to Islamabad, Pakistan over the weekend, but that changed when a passenger ignored the seatbelt sign and ran to what she thought was the lavatory.
Instead, she opened the emergency exit door while all the doors were armed, which signaled the emergency evacuation slides to deploy automatically.
“A passenger erroneously opened the emergency door causing the emergency slide to activate,” leading to all the passengers to be removed from the plane, PIA said in a statement.
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As a result, passengers were delayed for more than 7 hours.
When a slide is deployed in error, an airline may choose to continue a flight and replace it at its home base, as PIA did, but fewer passengers are allowed to fly because of the reduced evacuation capacity, according to the NY Post.
No injuries were reported from the incident and 38 passengers opted for a later flight.
“All passengers were provided dinner. The offloaded passengers were provided with transportation and hotel accommodation and will be adjusted on the next available flight,” the airline told the NY Post.
The incident comes weeks after an elderly passenger was arrested and detained in China for endangering the safety of an aircraft after he tried to open an emergency exit as the plane sat on the ground.
In an attempt to beat the queue to disembark, the passenger, identified by his surname, Song, opened an emergency door near his seat after his flight landed, as reported in CNN.