A Virgin America flight was almost diverted after a WiFi hotspot named ‘Samsung Galaxy Note7_1097‘ sent the crew into a total panic.
Passenger Lucas Wojciechowski was on flight 358 from San Francisco to Boston when he opened his laptop and noticed the unfortunately-named WiFi.
Open my laptop on the plane and notice a Galaxy Note 7 wifi hotspot https://t.co/y1csn9gOsZ pic.twitter.com/9Z5IJULuPs
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
Galaxy Note7s are banned by the US Department of Travel from all flights, thanks to the devices’ alarming habit of randomly exploding. Basically, having one on a flight is the equivalent of stowing a shiny bomb in your overstuffed hand luggage, so of course the flight crew reacted accordingly.
About an hour into the flight there’s an announcement “If anyone has a Galaxy Note 7, please press your call button”
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
15 minutes later “This isn’t a joke. We’re going to turn on the lights” (its 11pm) “and search everyone’s bag until we find it”
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
an additional 15 minutes later “This is the captain speaking…”
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
Apparently the plane is going to have to get diverted & searched if nobody fesses up soon ??
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
“I don’t know if you’ve ever been diverted at 3am… Let me tell you, it is terrible. There is nothing open in the terminal. Nothing.”
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
“Ladies and gentlemen, we found the device. Luckily only the name of the device was changed to ‘Galaxy Note 7’. It was not a GN7.”
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
(lights dim, end scene)
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
While some outlets are reporting this story as ‘IDIOT PASSENGER CHANGES HIS WIFI NAME AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED’, that might not be the case.
@lucaswoj The person might not have done this. I went from a Note7 to an S7 and the hotspot is actually still called Note7 on my S7. pic.twitter.com/dUHj75PBg3
— Steve Baxter (@stevebaxter999) December 23, 2016
Perhaps an unfortunate passenger fell into the same trap.
“When our InFlight Teammates see potential evidence of this device onboard, they take it seriously,” a spokesperson for Virgin America said. “In this case, there was no such device — the safety of the passengers and crew was never in question. And no flights were cancelled or delayed as a result.”
Photo: Getty / Emma McIntyre.
