Was the passenger
in the hot seat?
An Apple iPhone XR caught fire aboard a British Airways Boeing 787 mid-flight after a clumsy passenger dropped it down the side of her seat. The Club World passenger, flying from Miami to Heathrow, had raised her seat from its lie-flat bed position back to the conventional one while a stewardess rearranged her bedding. Yet on …
"... after a clumsy passenger dropped it down the side of her seat. The Club World passenger, flying from Miami to Heathrow, had raised her seat from its lie-flat bed position back to the conventional one while a stewardess rearranged her bedding."
Clumsy while sleeping, I am often guilty of that. Things not to do while falling asleep.
* Wear glasses (have suffered bent frames from this).
* Prop laptop on knees.
* Drink tea.
Have done all of the above, sometimes all at the same time. The problem is the "shouldn't do this" execution path is avoided in favor of the "power down for sleep *now*" instruction.
It's quite likely the phone was fine right up until the flight attendant change the seat position.
Yeah.. it's things like this why I don't sleep on aeroplanes.
Pre-covid I had a nice 19 hour flight from England to Japan, and ofc, the same back to England (with a brief stop in Dubai, around 1 hr or so both ways).
Me being me, stayed awake the whole time with no sleep for both flights because on a flight there's two things I don't trust:
1) Other passengers, who are these people sat next to you? What do you know about them? When you're flying alone like I do, the answer is "I don't know them". - So I don't want to lose my phone or other possessions while asleep... as such no sleep for me... just use my phone until I land (Yes.. I buy the in flight internet access, with VPN active ofc).
2) If you do drop something while asleep - By the time you notice it could be too late to recover it.
Almost every flight I've been on there's been another passenger saying "Hey, I lost my phone where is it?!" after waking.. usually it's found on the floor or under a seat.. but still, if you didn't check? Just thought it's in your bag?
And ofc and by the time feeding time comes I want my damn food because I'm hungry.. usually by feeding time I'm light headed and feeling faint on a long flight (food always fixes that)... so unlike other passengers who sleep right through it then complain there's no food, I need my food.
So imo, it's better to simply not sleep on aeroplanes, you get all the food and keep your stuff.
Oh, and last tip.. only drink the bottled water on an aircraft, about half way through the flight switch to juices... You don't want to know why...
Sorry you are so distrustful of people. I've never had anything stolen from me on a plane and I've slept on lots of long-hauls. Sounds like you could do with some cognitive behavioral therapy to address what sounds like an irrational fear.
If they can afford to fly that far internationally they are probably not after your stuff.
The original poster is not wrong. Several cases of inflight theft have occurred and been reported on as far back as 2011 (money and valuables have both 'been disappeared' on flights and yes, it affects not only economy, but business and first too). Unfortunately I am of the same opinion that locking things up is a good idea. I tend to wear a jacket with pockets on a plane anyway and will zip my stuff into them (or stick the items in my trouser/trackie pockets).
On planes I just sit quietly minding my own business while staying awake. That's my choice. If you feel that needs therapy then maybe you don't actually understand mental issues at all, because that is far from having issues compared to many people who come to my store that I give advice and help to often for real mental issues (mostly adults, not just teens).
Mental issues are not something you should joke about. They're not a joke.
I've only once slept on a long haul flight - and that was almost 20 years ago. I'd flown from the UK to Australia (Sydney) to contact a capability audit on a project management company wanting to bid for utility construction work in the UK. I left home on a Saturday lunchtime and arrived in Sydney on the Monday morning, after 3 flights (approaching 40 hours) and no sleep. The auditee was meant to have arranged a morning hotel check-in so I could sleep, ready to start the audit on the Tuesday morning. Hotel room not ready so I turned up at their office a day early. Slept well that evening...
I left Sydney on the Thursday afternoon (getting home on the Friday afternoon - just over 6 days away). I slept on the first leg back, an ~8 hour flight to KL. I woke up as we approached KL; the man next to me (I had an aisle seat) spoke and hoped he hadn't disturbed me when he stepped over me to get out during the flight. He explained, his brother was the pilot and had invited him onto the flight deck; he would have invited me along as well, but as I was asleep, he didn't;t want to disturb me. This was after 9/11 and any chance of visiting the flight deck was normally zero - unlike pre-9/11 when it was quite common to be allowed into the cockpit (if you asked). I'd never been in a 747 one in flight, and that had to be the one flight I slept on :(
As a PS, my visit was a couple weeks after England had beaten Australia in the Rugby World Cup final; the shops around the harbour were full of national rugby shirts for sale (and discounted); strangely, not one England shirt - I asked in one shop and was told all stock of them was now at the bottom of the harbour!
As written the details seem a bit fishy...
Passenger was in lie-flat position presumably having been lying flat. Passenger moved seat to seat-mode, so stewardess could re-arrange bedding. How do you (re-) arrange bedding on a seat when it's in seat mode???
Furthermore this is BA's business class, not Singapore's first class. Arranging your bedding is up to you, well as much as the 'bedding' consists of a blanket and a pillow.
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There's pretty good article on the state of the investigation as of Tuesday at Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/04/elon-musk-denies-autopilot-was-active-before-deadly-crash-in-texas/ Their take away It's a confusing situation where all possible explanations seem rather unlikely.
BTW, the police seem (or at least seemed two days ago) quite certain that the driver's seat was empty and both passengers were belted in. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/04/cops-almost-99-9-sure-tesla-had-no-one-at-the-wheel-before-deadly-crash/
The most plausible explanation based on the "facts" at hand would seem to be that there was a third entity driving the vehicle who was teleported to safety just before impact.
I doubt we'll have to wait for an official report. That may take months or years. But we certainly would seem to need more complete/more accurate data.
A phone in a superposition of lost and found states can emit foul smelling smoke? Could this observation be the long sought after key to truly understanding quantum mechanics?
When the sulfur smell is detected, the wave form collapsed. "Observation" can be olfactory or auditory (I suppose tactile as well) in addition to Mark I eyeball.
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I'm a bit undecided here, I can see how the passenger didn't do this maliciously so understand how it may not have put the liability at their door but come on. Surely there has to be person accountability here.
I've got a nine year old who sometimes struggles with accountability of actions (such as damaged Switch controllers...) but you know, they're nine. As a grown adult who fucking around with a seat they are told not to do who charges the phone up but doesn't notice it falling down the gap, I cannot help but feel their insurance should be getting a bill here. I hope that happened at least.
Plus a couple of high profile cases may be the best way to educate the masses