Picture this: You’re all hyped up and ready to fly across the ocean as part of an airline’s inaugural journey to a destination across the ocean, everyone is cheering, the excitement is building and then suddenly foam is spraying everywhere. Celebration over, and you’re forced to wait a night to get off the ground. Delays are annoying, yes, but rarely are they caused by celebrating firefighters pressing the wrong button.

That’s what’s reportedly behind the delay of Virgin Atlantic’s first flight from Manchester, England to Atlanta, GA, reports The Telegraph.

The Airbus A330-300 was enjoying the celebratory hullabaloo at Manchester Airport, complete with a planned salute from fire crews, who were supposed to send the plane off with a spray from water cannons, when somehow the hoses were switched, releasing jets of fire-suppressing foam.

Not only does that make a big mess, but it clogged up jet engines and turbine blades, grounding the plane so it could undergo a safety check before taking off.

The flight’s 257 passengers who were anxiously awaiting the journey were told at first there’d be a five-hour delay, but after gnoshing and swilling a few refreshments, the airline cancelled the flight until the next day. Passengers were put up in hotels overnight and returned to the airport this morning.

“The pilot explained that the plane was being given a water cannon salute. Unfortunately someone had pressed the button for foam, instead of water. It clogged up the engines,” said one passenger.

“We needed to give the aircraft a thorough check over,” Virgin Atlantic said in explaining the delay.

Plane grounded after firefighters accidentally sprayed it with foam [The Telegraph]

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