An Airbus A320 from Condor was on a taxiway at Frankfurt Airport on Saturday when an evacuation slide was accidentally activated.
Condor flight DE0495 was scheduled to depart from Frankfurt to Berlin around 8:30 AM. Just before that, shortly after the aircraft was pushbacked, one of the slides was accidentally activated. The slide from the left rear door inflated and leaned onto the taxiway. All passengers had to leave the aircraft via a staircase. Condor arranged an Airbus A321 as a replacement aircraft. As a result of the activation, the flight was delayed by approximately one and a half hours. The A320, registration D-AICH, was repaired the same day.
It is more common than expected for the emergency slide to accidentally deploy. Such incidents are usually caused by the crew forgetting to deactivate the system. The slide automatically inflates when the door is opened while the system is still active. Last year, an emergency slide was also accidentally activated on a Transavia Airbus A321neo at Barcelona Airport. In November, the same happened on a KLM Cityhopper Embraer 190 at Schiphol Airport. The slide ended up on top of a catering truck.