Well, I didn't know that this was a thing.
A United Airlines flight had to make a U-turn on a transatlantic flight because someone dropped their laptop.
You'd think simply dropping your computer wouldn't create an air travel incident.
But the fact that this passenger just so happened to drop the computer through a crack and into the cargo hold could have resulted in a midair disaster.
Here's Business Insider:
An audio recording published by LiveATC.net and uploaded to YouTube appears to show the reason for the diversion.
'We have a minor situation here with a passenger who has somehow dropped a laptop down the sidewall into the cargo pit of the airplane,' one of the pilots tells air traffic control.
'We don't know the status of it, we can't access it, we can't see it,' he added. 'So our decision is to return to Dulles and find this laptop before we can continue over the ocean.'
Imagine you're on a flight from Washington to Rome and you have a false start like this over Cape Cod.
As laptops contain lithium batteries, they pose a potential fire risk.
If overcharged or damaged, it can result in thermal runaway, leading to rapid temperature increase.
And because the laptop was inaccessible, the crew might not know if it had been damaged or caught fire until it was too late.
That's the same reason airlines require electronics to be carried in your carry-on rather than your checked luggage.
The ground crew located the laptop, everything was fine, and the flight was quickly back in the air and on the way to Rome.
Only to arrive four hours late.
Just another reason for you to be paranoid about ruining everyone's day the next time you take a plane.
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