Flight almost diverted after passenger names wi-fi hotspot ‘Galaxy Note 7’
A Virgin America flight was almost diverted after a passenger changed the name of their wi-fi hotspot to ‘Samsung Galaxy Note 7’.
According to the BBC, the crew of Virgin America flight 358 from San Francisco to Boston were alerted to the hotspot about an hour into the flight and immediately made an announcement calling for any passenger with a Note 7 to press their call button.
Passenger Lucas Wojciechowski tweeted that 15 minutes later there was another announcement which said: "This isn’t a joke. We’re going to turn on the lights (it’s 11pm) and search everyone’s bag until we find it.
"This is the captain speaking. Apparently the plane is going to have to get diverted and searched if nobody fesses up soon."
The passenger in question came forward and admitted changing the name of their SSID wireless device to ‘Samsung Galaxy Note 7_1097’, even though they didn’t actually have a Samsung device.
The US Department of Transportation has banned the phones from flights after several incidents when they have caught fire.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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