Damaged Tablet on Board Flight Prompts Unexpected Landing

There are, unfortunately, plenty of reasons why a plane might return to its destination that have nothing to do with mechanical issues, from a pilot missing their passport to genuinely terrible smells.A recent Lufthansa flight made a similar U-turn after takeoff this month, but the reason for it didn’t fit into any of the above categories; instead, a missing tablet was to blame.

As Business Insider‘s Milan Sehmbi reports, a Lufthansa flight was headed to Munich from Los Angeles when it made an unexpected emergency landing in Boston instead. The issue, according to what an airline spokesperson told Business Insider, was that a tablet had become “jammed in a Business Class seat” — and was showing “visible signs of deformation.”

Simply Flying’s Jake Hardiman has more details on the flight’s diversion, which took place over Canadian airspace. The flight ended up arriving in Munich three hours late — probably not something any of the passengers had expected when they boarded the flight in LA.

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The reason that this tablet necessitated an unexpected landing affecting hundreds of travelers is simple: concerns over lithium battery fires. As of 2023, airlines were experiencing an onboard fire due to these batteries an average of once per week. Air travel involves all kinds of people, but I feel confident in writing that none of them would like to be trapped in a confined space miles over the planet’s surface while something catches fire.

The diverted Lufthansa flight isn’t the only example of an airline being very cautious when it comes to preventing lithium battery fires. Last month, the New York Times‘ Yan Zhuang reported that a growing number of airlines in Southeast Asia are restricting the use of such batteries in portable devices and chargers on board flights. There’s a very good reason for that: investigators believe that a battery fire destroyed a South Korean plane earlier this year.