QANTAS' air safety spiel warns not to try finding lost phones Your correspondent noted something odd during his flight to VMworld 2016 aboard Australian airline QANTAS: during the pre-flight safety briefing passengers were told to ask the crew for help if they lost their phones aboard the A380 and not, repeat not, to try to find it themselves. The Register asked QANTAS why it now makes …
I stubbed my toe once. Ouchhh. Where are the 'Don't stub your toe' signs?
This incident was dealt with by calm, collected, professional staff in a completely unexpected situation. So that's a plus for the existing methods. But that's not good enough because we must have our worry-nerves always stretched (Something to do with don't forget the children or terrorism) so lets find the foliage of trivia that hides the real vampire-jumping-spider.
> This country went from landing on the Moon to "This bag is not a toy!" in only 40 years
Maybe so, but this one time after shopping for what seemed like eternity for some new shoes, I got home and needed to have a bite. Thank God for that timely warning on those silica gel packs. Could've made me sick had I not noticed.
Filmed from several angles with covert cameras of panicked passengers, this has to be the ultimate Youtube iPhone destruction video waiting to be made. 50m+ hits.
Ryanair is always looking for new revenue angles and doesn't give a shit about its passengers*, a perfect match?
*I've actually never had a bad Ryanair flight/experience, but said here for "stereotypical effect".
Ryanair are pretty low down when it comes to customer satisfaction lists but even they are streets ahead of most US based carriers and the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet are wonderful when compared to some of the 'new' airlines in China. We complain about 30in seat pitches. Try squeezing a 6ft 6in bdy into a 26in seat pitch space when your thigh bone is 30in long.
As for business class seats (US Carriers excepted) on airlines like Quantas, BA, Emirates etc. They have lots of electric motors that do indeed turn the seat into an almost flat bed. If you want a truly flat bed then you have to fly 1st class (ok so I got a free upgrade). BA even makes up your bed while you change into jimjams they provide.
"I no longer fly Ryanair when I heard how they treated their staff."
It's not just the in-air experience.
A few years back a friend of mine arrived at Stansted airport after being delayed at Edinburgh for 4 hours.
The flight arrived after the last train into london departed, so a lot of passengers wanted to claim for a taxi (passenger rights, etc etc) RyanAir's aitrport staff _hid_ from the passengers and wouldn't even come out when the airport manager called security to fetch them.
On long haul business class, BA is fully lie flat. Emirates and Etihad are fully lie flat. Heck, even Air India does fully lie flat in biz. You don't need to fly first to get a fully flat bed - this has been the case for at least the last decade.
And yes, a phone is all too easy to lose into one of those seats and will be crushed - these seats are designed to raise a 250lb truely "fat" cat exec sat in it from flat to bolt upright in 15 seconds, they'll happily crush anything in their mechanisms.
Ryanair and mechanised seats?
Are you expecting Leprechauns to drive them? Or maybe a special slot machine where you put a euro for every 1 degree inclination? With demand driven pricing which decreases the granted angle if more than one customer is reclining?
This is a business/first class long haul specific incident. The normal seats for the hoy polloy do not possess the relevant crushing mechanics.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand:
"Airline safety spiel prohibits finding lost phones" No, it doesn't. That's just clickbait, and by El Reg's standards (which from time to time regales us with sparks of true genius) pretty lame at that.
How do you determine you've lost your phone? You check the obvious first: wrong pocket, wrong bag, wrong orifice? On the floor below your seat? Nicked by that obnoxious brat in the row behind you? If those checks all turn out negative, it might be possible the thing has wedged itself in some part of the plane, seat or otherwise. And I don't think there is any airline that is okay with passengers starting to dismantle parts of their aircraft's interior.
PIC Your correspondent noted something odd during his flight to VMworld 2016 aboard Australian airline QANTAS: during the pre-flight safety briefing passengers were told to ask the crew for help if they lost their phones aboard the A380 and not, repeat not, to try to find it themselves.
Their safety video is charming and, well, French - or possibly that should be written charming *and* French... depending. Wait, I digress..
For some time now - they have also requested the sardines do not attempt to disassemble the tin-can if an iPrecioussss is lost.. Guess now I know why
Not that it's remotely relevant which phone it was as all phones will be equally explosive when abused in a seat folding mechanism, but I don't think this was an iPhone. Yes the top bar is certainly iPhone-esque, but what's left of the camera module is not rounded enough for an iDevice. My guess would be a Xiaomi Mi4.
Any other guesses?
The recommended action is to pour water (or other water-based liquid - fizzy or not) over it to cool it down and stop the fire spreading. Or better, to drop it in a bucket of water. If that is done, or a water-based extinguisher used, it would be fairly easy to contain the relatively small fire from a phone battery.
I suspect it's not really possible to properly put out the fire before the energy is all released from the battery, which happens in a matter of seconds once it properly takes hold, so containing it is almost definitely the best course of action.
BZZZZT! You forget that we're talking Lithium. Lithium is a Group I element, an alkali metal: the same class of metals as sodium and potassium. One thing these alkali metals have in common is that they react very badly to water. Pour water on a lithium fire and run the risk of making it worse. That's why they had to develop Class D fire extinguishers for metal fires since they tend to introduce complications that make even certain dry chemical (for Class C electrical fires) risky.
Oh look, downvotes for correct, if surprising, fact, because someone said something fancy with big words.
There is not much lithium in a li-ion battery, and the small amount there is already on fire anyway. Water won't make it worse.
Here is the official advice from the FAA. The logic, and it is sound, is that you can do nothing about the burning cell(s), but you can cool the surrounding ones, prevent the fire spreading, and extinguish any surrounding material which has caught fire.
(1) Utilize a Halon, Halon replacement or water extinguisher to extinguish the fire and prevent its spread to additional flammable materials.(2) After extinguishing the fire, douse the device with water or other non-alcoholic liquids to cool the device and prevent additional battery cells from reaching thermal runaway.
BZZT! Lithium ion is not Lithium metal, just as Sodium ions in salt are not dangerous like Sodium metal.
The flammable aspect of a Li-ion battery is the organic electrolyte. Lots of heat from a short, especially when the separator is punctured, can set the organic goodness on fire. This is not a combustible metal fire.
"Or better, to drop it in a bucket of water."
I think you misspelled "sand".
A fully charged lithium battery has significant quanties of pure lithium inside it and mixing with water is going to result in a bad day if you do it whilst airborne.
On average an aircraft fire which can't be put out by cabin crew will down the plane if it is further than 11 minutes from being able to land.
Even primary Lithium coin cells like CR2032 can be persuaded to explode / burn*. Batteries that are cycled many times or charged too quickly can get a build up of metallic Lithium, which burns nicely in water. I've wondered are the PP3 / E block/ 6F23 etc batteries made with lithium chemistry safe for appliances made to take layer cell or alkaline types, like how many toys are unsafe with NiMH or NiCd rechargeable because of their lower impedance means a short can cause a fire due to hot wire and plastic.
At least Lithium batteries aren't as bad as Chlorine Trifluride
So there are two aspects to any battery system, the cell contents and ability to supply enough current to use shorted wiring as a ignition source to plastic, paper, cloth etc.
[* Short out ONE AA NiMH to set the plastic of wire on fire. Short out a stack of 20 off CR2032 to see them self destruct. Obviously the 1.5mA to 2mA current limit quoted may be a safety limit rather than the limit of what can be supplied.]
Few things are as bad as ClF3 it must be said. Oh, maybe Dioxygen Diflouride
In the 1980s some PC used Lithium Thionyl Chloride batteries for the clock. I remember buying them in 1980s for parameter RAM for an Industrial Controller I was developing, no Flash memory then. The NiCd packs didn't have long enough life and also self discharge was 100s of times more than the static RAM standby current.
I wonder are they still made? Thionyl Chloride
One of the ingredients of super glue isn't much fun either. Methyl Isocyanate, I've noticed it lately as an ingredient and wondered. A spill of "Superglue" can set damp cotton on fire.
According to my preferred sources (avherald.com) the incident with the seat was a Sydney-Los Angeles flight. The one that landed in Dallas was in May and the phone did not erupt in flame.
But I still don't understand why the passengers should not search for their phone by them selves (beside te obvious dismantling of the seat).
Dont we have Diesel powered phones yet?
Sure they would stink and be noisy but Diesel is pretty tricky to set on fire.
Also whats manlier than reeking of Diesel?
Diesel and large hunting knives should be allowed on flights. How is a red blooded hetero macho guy supposed to shave otherwise?
With shaving cream and a safety razor? Give me a break.
Ill never understand why the person sitting next to me on the tube feels uneasy when I slap on some diesel after sharpening my knife on my belt then proceeding to shave with it.
Im pretty metro these days, I moisturise with 10w50 after I shave and deodorise with WD40...for the ladies you understand.
I even wash twice a week splashing collected rain water on my face, armpits and bollocks...all the key areas.
I then brush my teeth with a scouring pad and brasso then floss using barbed wire.
To prove my metro sensitivity, when I entertain the ladies (and I do, only 70% of them have difficulty learning or other similar psychological issues) I cook my signature dish. Rattle snakes wrapped in fire blankets and thrown on a burning tyre fire which are then left to simmer aggressively until knackered. I then sprinkle on olive oil, herbes de provence and iron filings for presentation and flair. Served with a garnish of dandelions and nettles.
I pair this dish with a rough, difficult to swallow, Danish lager. Preferably one with a viking on the tin.
The night will then be gently wound up by curling up in a skip romantically lit with a road works warning light to watch some hard Belgian porn on my portable DVD player with the sound of road traffic and foxes shagging for ambiance.
Also whats manlier than reeking of Diesel?
An eye wateringly rank musky body odour, I'd suggest. My teenage lad will be pleased to demonstrate the concept.
How is a red blooded hetero macho guy supposed to shave otherwise?
Shave? Shaving is for p***s and suits. Real men don't shave (or have food infested jihadi beards for that matter). They just have coarse stubble. Cut it with wire clippers once a week and you're good to go.
> Diesel is pretty tricky to set on fire.
So is kerosene. You can use it as fuel in a diesel engine (although it tends to lack the lubricating properties of diesel, so may trash the injection pump), but both burn relatively well if you provide a wicking surface (like seat cushion fabric or carpet) and a decent ignition source (zippo?)
If you had a diesel powered phone, then getting it crushed in the maw of some electric seat would just create a different set of hazards.
Last night, September 8th, I was on a Jetstar flight from Perth to Melbourne. The usual air safety announcement before takeoff had an addendum. I paraphrase - because of a worldwide recall of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 mobile phones this device was completely prohibited from being turned on during the flight. Other devices could be used in flight mode.
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