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A recent Air France flight from Paris to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, had to pull a dramatic U-turn mid-air – all because some passenger misplaced their phone. Yes, really.
According to One Mile at a Time, the airborne scavenger hunt kicked off about an hour into the flight. Crew and passengers scoured the cabin for the elusive device, but no dice.
Rather than just accepting the L and carrying on, the airline decided to turn the whole plane around “as a precautionary measure.” Translation: better safe than a mid-air inferno, thanks to lithium-ion batteries.
Two hours after takeoff, the plane was right back where it started in Paris. Ground staff then boarded and, surprise, surprise, managed to locate the missing phone. With that crisis averted, the aircraft finally took off again.
Air France stayed tight-lipped on why exactly the phone warranted a full-scale retreat, but speculation pointed to the ever-unpredictable lithium-ion battery. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warns that these little firestarters have been involved in at least 600 aviation incidents since 2006. Phones, vapes, laptops, and portable battery packs all use them, which means in-flight battery drama is only heating up – literally.
In response, some Asian airlines have started cracking down. As CNN reported, new rules range from banning in-seat charging of power banks to requiring passengers to stow battery-powered devices in overhead bins. Aerospace design expert Sonya Brown summed it up best:
“Lithium batteries could act as an ignition source themselves, or as a source of fuel for a fire initiated elsewhere. The potential risk as an ignition source is increased when lithium batteries are damaged, swollen, include manufacturing defects, are over-charged or over-heated.”
So, next time you lose your phone on a flight, expect that there might be a whole hullabaloo.
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