United Airlines flight turns around after passenger’s laptop fell through crack into cargo hold

Not The Bee ^ | October 30, 2025 | Harris Rigby

[Red Badger]

Aviation Ping!.

Why is there a ‘crack’ into the cargo hold?...........

[doorgunner69]

Mebbe that is why they turned around?

[irishjuggler]

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.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

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.

[broken_clock]

I guess this area was in the pressurized cargo hold.

[Red6]

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.

[PAR35]

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.

[DesertRhino]

Good decision by the pilot.

[Tijeras_Slim]

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.

[Red Badger]

“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...................

[Chewbarkah]

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.

[Tijeras_Slim]

The last L1011 commercial flight was in 2008. It was a great plane though.

[PAR35]

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.

[Tijeras_Slim]

When I flew on business, I did my part to lighten the drink cart. :)

[pepsi_junkie]

Why is there a ‘crack’ into the cargo hold?..........

so the snakes can get through.

[pepsi_junkie]

Always doing your part to lighten the load on the steawardesses. You’re a giving soul.

[Red Badger]

Ahhh, now it makes perfect sense!..............

[PAR35]

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.

[logi_cal869]

Notice what was glaringly missing from the article and ALL other articles I just found?