Posted on 10/30/2025 7:04:28 PM PDT by Red Badger
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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Aviation Ping!.
Why is there a ‘crack’ into the cargo hold?...........
Mebbe that is why they turned around?
I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the notion of a “crack” in the floor of the passenger cabin that would be large enough for a laptop to slip through. Some kind of cap against the wall of the cabin? Maybe I could see small, thin phone slipping into such a gap... but a laptop? Wow. Very weird.
Holy Crap!!!!!
Or, better said
Holy Crack!!!
Well....... Will this eventually be blamed on all of those racist Crackers!
Was it one of those super slim laptops?
Will they now ban any super slim laptops?
If there are any cracks between the liquor cabinet and the last row of seats, I want that seat!
Purely medicinal, of course.
I guess this area was in the pressurized cargo hold.
One thing we do right, FAA and pilots, error on the side of caution.
DO NOT second guess a safety decision like this.
If a pilot declares an emergency or decides to abort a trip and it is just 1% feasible that this is a viable danger/risk, let it go. His call.
Not just a little gap, a crack large enough for a laptop to fall through.
United ought to switch to L1011s. they had an elevator so the crew could go downstairs to the galley.
Or the Airbus 220 that has a hatch in the cockpit.
Good decision by the pilot.
I think after the DC 10 that lost a cargo door and the cabin floor collapsed downward, vents were placed so a sudden decompression of the cargo area would not make this happen.
“dropped a laptop down the sidewall into the cargo pit”
Apparently there is a gap between the floor of the passenger cabin and the interior sidewall of the fuselage.
The passenger must have laid the laptop up against the wall, and it being one of the newer super slim models, it vanished into the cargo compartment...................
I think you are onto something. What sort of airliner operates safely with a pressurized, heated cabin that communicates spacially with a non-pressurized, unheated cargo hold? (If that is indeed the case.)
Will the moron who inserted his/her laptop into some oddball crack in the fuselage get to pay for the fuel, crew, and the time/ruined trips of all the other passengers? I hope so.
The last L1011 commercial flight was in 2008. It was a great plane though.
Heard that the stewardesses didn’t like them because it flew slightly tail down when crusing, and they had to push the loaded beverage carts uphill and then serve going back downhill as the carts got lighter.
When I flew on business, I did my part to lighten the drink cart. :)
so the snakes can get through.
Always doing your part to lighten the load on the steawardesses. You’re a giving soul.
Ahhh, now it makes perfect sense!..............
Cargo holds are pressurized on the jetliners. See, variously United Airlines Flight 811 (747), Turkish Airlines flight 981 (DC-10), and American Airlines flight 96 (DC-10). United killed 9, American didn’t kill any. The Turks killed 345 in their explosive decompression of the cargo hold with the door blew out.
Notice what was glaringly missing from the article and ALL other articles I just found?
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