Why did a smartphone cause a British Airways seat fire?

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• Alex Sm says:

  25 Apr25 April 10:34

  Why does the illustration to this article depict A350 while the story is about B787?

  • Rob says:

    25 Apr25 April 10:37

    We needed a 1200-wide image for a test we are running and this was the first 1200-wide BA image I found. Boring but true.

    • Alex Sm says:

      25 Apr25 April 12:01

      🙂

• SIMON HILL says:

  25 Apr25 April 10:41

  On our last flight on 6 Jan 2020 SFO-LHR on a 747 my wife and I had centre seats in First (the only adjacent ones – she has dementia and needs to be able to see me and hold hands etc.) which had no storage space whatsoever. After the meal I went to the loo, having perched my power bank (about same size as my iPhone 6S) on the arm of the seat for lack of anywhere else to put it. On return the power bank was nowhere to be seen around my by now made-up bed. So it was the crew (not ‘idiot customer’) who dropped it into the seat mechanism. I then stripped the seat to search inside, moving it from flat to upright several times, but unable to reach the powerbank. There then ensued a hunt by one member of the crew after another trying to extract it, which went on for 45-60 minutes (with me wanting to sleep, standing nearby) by when the head steward had come to hear of it. She immediately instructed the seat should not be moved from its by now bolt upright position – overnight, in First, with 8 hours yet to go to LHR! I was found another seat but not within sight or hand-holding distance of my wife who rapidly became upset. One of the crew spotted the situation and then sat next to my wife on crew seats, engaging her in conversation, during which time I eventually got a couple of hours of lie-flat sleep. Nothing more was said thereafter about the inconvenience (or loss of my power bank!). Must be one of the worst First horror stories?

  • JoeBloggs says:

    26 Apr26 April 00:20

    Moving and frustrating story. Thanks for sharing it Simon.

• Amanda Burnby says:

  25 Apr25 April 12:31

  Thank you Nick, finally somebody said it .. Responsibility of the passenger !!
  I was cabin crew for 30+ years & it was like pulling teeth trying to get passengers 1) off their phones when not supposed to be using them 2) unplugging them before settling down to sleep.
  Of all the incidences that can happen , there is NOTHING more frightening than a fire onboard .. With lights down it can go unnoticed & with limited amount of fire extinguishers, your worst nightmare. ( On 747’s which I flew on , there were 3 minutes worth of bcf extinguishers, for an aircraft with almost 400 passengers).
  With SO many areas & reasons a fire can start on an aircraft, the very least a passenger can do is to be responsible for their own devices.. Crew have a seriously heavy workload as it is without having to nanny these people who are well able to understand the safety instructions but for some inexplicable reason , chose not to.

• AndyC says:

  25 Apr25 April 13:01

  “…which occured on a British Airways flight…”

  *occurred*

  • Lord Doncaster says:

    25 Apr25 April 16:35

    Indeed. Even Americans use ‘occurred’. I have to proofread a lot of American docs and it erks me to see ‘traveled’ ‘traveler’ etc

    • Kenneth says:

      25 Apr25 April 17:32

      Erk or irk?

• Ken Williams says:

  1 May1 May 14:50

  Having flown well nearly 350 times covering around 300,000 miles and having watched my fellow passengers in action I can testify to the appalling arrogance and stupidity of some passengers, happily a small percentage but nevertheless a pain in TB.
  They take no notice of safety instructions, unbuckle seat belts and leave their seats before the aircraft has come to a halt (VERY DANGEROUS), talk to Cabin Staff as though they are dirt, ignore polite requests to comply with said safety regulations, etc etc etc.
  THEN, when something goes wrong they are the first to start whingeing and whining and reaching for their Solicitors.
  Thank heavens I don’t have to fly anymore except for holiday purposes- the most uncivilised form of transport ever invented.
  As for parting folk company from their wretched mobiles (yes, we have on each thank you!!) dream on Cabin Crew.

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