Flying to your destination has got to be the most convenient way to travel. That being said, there are always going to be issues that can be frustrating or may make you wish you had taken a bus.
Although there are a lot of bad things that you could do on a plane, one of the worst has to be starting a fire. It seems as if this is not as difficult as most people think, because all you have to do is lose your cell phone.
According to ABC News, it happened on a Qantas flight to Melbourne in 2018 when a man dropped his cell phone along the side of the seat and was trying to retrieve it. Suddenly, the phone started to smoke and the pilot thought he would have to divert to another airport.
The crew was able to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher, but can you imagine being in the middle of that commotion?
As a result of what happened, passengers are being warned to let a flight attendant know if they lose their phone next to a plane seat. If the lithium battery is crushed or becomes damaged, it could start a fire or may even explode.
This isn’t the first time that the warning has happened. According to CBC, Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority released a similar warning in 2016 that said: “Smartphones can fall into aircraft seat mechanisms and be crushed when the seat is moved. Passengers must remember never to move their seat if a phone goes missing while in-flight and to always ask the aircraft cabin crew for assistance. If a phone is damaged cabin crew should be alerted immediately.”
It has also happened on other planes. On an Alaskan Airlines flight, a mobile phone caught on fire and the plane had to be evacuated. Something similar happened in 2018 when a phone battery burst into flames before takeoff. In a video shared by The Sun, you could see the passengers on the emergency chute exiting the aircraft.
There have been many other instances, in which luggage has caught on fire and the flame had to be extinguished. As a result, some airline pilots are concerned about putting bags with cell phones into a lower hold.
Just when you thought you had enough to worry about! Perhaps I should rethink keeping my phone in my pocket.