US to Germany flight diverted after iPad became 'jammed' in seat

1News

29-04-2025

A flight from the US to Germany was forced to divert after a passenger's iPad became "jammed" in a business class seat.
According to Simple Flying, Lufthansa flight LH453 from Los Angeles to Munich made the uncharted stopover in Boston, just six hours into the 11-hour flight on Wednesday, April 23 (local time).
A spokesperson for the airline said that after the tablet had become stuck in the business class passenger's seat, the Airbus A380 was diverted to "eliminate any potential risk, particularly with regard to possible overheating".
"The cockpit crew and air traffic control jointly decided, as a precaution, to divert the flight to Boston.
"There, a Lufthansa Technik team safely removed and inspected the damaged tablet. At Lufthansa, the safety of our passengers and crew is always our top priority. The diversion was a purely precautionary measure."
The spokesperson said that once the plane had touched down in Boston, "the device had already shown visible signs of deformation due to the seat's movements".
The aircraft took off again just over 90 minutes later and reached Munich three hours late.
The diversion followed other recent incidents where flights were diverted due to a fire risk caused by missing or broken devices.
In March, an Air France flight from Paris was forced to make a U-turn after a missing phone sparked safety concerns.
Devices like phones and tablets contain lithium-ion batteries, which are sensitive to temperature changes and can cause fires if damaged or overheated.
Last month, a Southwest Airlines plane in the US was pulled from service after a passenger's laptop caught fire.
Simple Flying reported on numbers by the US Federal Aviation Administration which said there were 69 lithium-ion battery fires on flights in 2024.