Why did a smartphone cause a British Airways seat fire?

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• Tim says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:04

  “Manufacturers are also in a permanent game of catch-up, with devices continually getting smaller and thinner and so at risk of slipping into ever smaller spaces.” Really? I’m not convinced about that at all. I don’t think Tim Cook got the memo anyway. The smallest iPhone 5 was introduced in 2012 and they’ve only been bigger since. The real question should be: under what circumstances do smart phones with temperamental batteries decide to commit suicide, and is that, as a society, something we can live with?

  • Wally1976 says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:23

    Yes regarding the size of phones, when I came to buy a new (Android) phone a few months ago (after about 3 years) I couldn’t find a single model that was the same size or smaller than my old one. They were all massive! I ended up buying a refurbished Google Pixel 2 which is a fairly old model and still a bit larger than I’d like ideally.

  • KBuffett says:

    25 Apr25 April 09:11

    Is the iPhone 12 mini larger than iPhone 5?

    • David Lawton says:

      25 Apr25 April 15:51

      Yes it is, I’ve owned both , the 12 mini is bigger than a 5 .

• Susan says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:45

  Every dollar store/poundshop on the planet sells nifty little pliable phone holders for affixing phones to car windscreens. Rather than redesigning an entire seat could airlines not retrofit something like these, accessible from every seating position, so people have a safe, secure place to put the phone rather than on seatarms/slippery tables etc. And make it a requirement that any phone not in your hand or coat pocket must be in this.

  • Erico1875 says:

    25 Apr25 April 07:15

    Good thinking Susan.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:28

    Exactly right Susan – and make the charging point access to it of course so it’s a no brainier to use it

    I lost my phone at least once per TATL flight and I am well aware of the risks of damaged batteries, I’m sure the number of near misses to these near misses is enormous

  • ChrisC says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:57

    Problem is phones come in all shapes and sizes and they would soon get broken as people try and force too large phones into them or they get caught in bedding etc.

    BA didn’t even replace the iPad holder on the 2 A318s when they got larger ones and that would have only been 64 seats in total!

    People need to take some responsibility themselves and out their phones in one of the cubby holes in the seat.

  • Craig says:

    25 Apr25 April 10:06

    My thinking too Susan. A retro fit like this would not be cost prohibitive and potentially save lives. Airlines can simply introduce a policy ‘all phones in holders when not in use’

  • NFH says:

    25 Apr25 April 13:04

    Such holders could include a QI wireless charger, which would encourage passengers to put their phones into them. I think it’s an excellent idea.

  • Alex W says:

    25 Apr25 April 21:36

    Funnily enough you can’t buy EASA certified aircraft components in a pound shop. However a seat or seat back with a purpose designed phone holder is a good idea.

• Kurt Kraut says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:26

  Fly me to Baghdad NOW, or I’ll get my smartphone stuck in my seat!!!

• meta says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:30

  For all the commenters above “ a charging cable which disappeared into the seat mechanism.”

  I guess the passenger didn’t get the memo to disconnect the phone from charging cable whilst sleeping. I suspect the phone in itself trapped into the seat wouldn’t have caused the fire, but the phone plugged in.

  • ThinkSquare says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:14

    Meta: It doesn’t need to be charging. There’s a Bear Grylls episode where he lights a fire by putting a knife through a phone. It’s very effective!

    • Chris Heyes says:

      25 Apr25 April 08:54

      ThinkSquare But was the phone working after he lit the fire
      Myself I’d have used a match, but maybe Bears haven’t got the same intelligence

    • The Lord says:

      25 Apr25 April 10:49

      Why didn’t he use the phone to call for help?

  • Joseph Heenan says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:15

    The report says the device was crushed, so damage to the battery was most likely the primary cause of the fire – most likely one of the cells got shorted out. Most people don’t appreciate quite how dangerous these batteries can be once damaged. The fact that it was potentially charging may have made things a little worse but likely the device would have caught fire regardless.

    • meta says:

      25 Apr25 April 11:46

      Ah thanks @ThinkSquare and @Joseph.

• 1ATL says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:30

  Watch out for upcoming reports as there’ll be another incident coming

• Sideshow Bob says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:34

  People are advised in the safety demo that if a mobile phone becomes trapped in the seat not to move it and call a member of the crew. But then again, how many people actually listen intently to the safety demo.

  • Andrew says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:13

    Yes I’ve noticed that all the airlines mention this in their safety videos now.

    • Alex Sm says:

      25 Apr25 April 10:28

      No wonder given the number of accidents! This will make a good new episode of Air Crash Investigations

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:30

    The point in this article is that the passenger wasn’t aware it was trapped, which I think is the larger part of the risk here.

    Now, phones are made of metal and it does make me wonder what else a seat would bend if it was stuck in the seat – try it with a finger or two?

  • Ian says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:30

    The passenger in question didn’t know his phone was trapped, the crew noticed when they cleared his bed.

    • Oh! Matron! says:

      25 Apr25 April 10:06

      So I think we’ve ascertained that the passenger was the problem not the phone 😃

      • meta says:

        25 Apr25 April 11:50

        Yes, just put the phone in the storage and don’t charge it if you’re going to sleep. On all my flights since the widespread of smartphones, crew went around and warned that you should not charge the phone while you’re sleeping. I usually just carry a powerbank and put it in storage or my bag.

  • Andrew says:

    25 Apr25 April 11:13

    Wasn’t that as a consequence of a chap being crushed to death by a seat at a Vue Cinema when he was trying to recover lost phone/keys?

    (Apologies for begging in Graudian link)

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/07/vue-admits-failures-over-cinema-goer-crushed-to-death-by-seat-in-birmingham

• Rupert one says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:36

  I’ve been on a BA flight a few years ago that had to make an emergency landing. The flight was Seoul to LHR. A trapped mobile phone caught in a business class seat caused the electrics to trip. A Dreamliner doing a figure of 8 dumping fuel rapidly descending was a sight to behold. The decent was rapid. We landed at an old soviet airbase called Irkutsk in Siberia. It was August though. The runway was a bit bumpy. We were there for a few hours. The plane had to be refilled from old trucks. We took off again after the all clear, but no in flight entertainment. Who needed it. But bravo BA cabin flight crew and pilot. So professional.

  • Charlie says:

    25 Apr25 April 09:21

    I was on that one also, have the videos of the fueldumping.

    • Chris K says:

      25 Apr25 April 09:47

      Have you put them on YouTube?

  • Andrew M says:

    25 Apr25 April 10:09

    I think the 600,000 citizens of Irkutsk, with it’s 400 years of history, would object to it being described as an old Soviet air base.

    • Alex Sm says:

      25 Apr25 April 10:30

      +1

    • Rupert one says:

      25 Apr25 April 11:46

      I didn’t go on the guided tour. The Sikorsky’s and the pig pen’s at the end of the runway made it feel like an old soviet air base!

      • Alex Sm says:

        25 Apr25 April 12:08

        It seems to be a popular place for emergency landings of British planes en route from Asia. A year prior to the events you guys describe, a Virgin plane carrying Tom Daley and 200+ others from Shanghai also landed there for a while

        https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/british-diver-tom-daley-in-china-flight-scare-114072101293_1.html

• Roger Jones says:

  25 Apr25 April 08:07

  Good luck trying to place restrictions on mobile phones during flights.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    25 Apr25 April 13:00

    Thanks!

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