Samsung Wi-Fi prank almost forces flight diversion
Tuesday, 23 Dec, 2016
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A Virgin America flight was delayed and almost diverted after a passenger changed the name of their wi-fi hotspot to ‘Samsung Galaxy Note 7’.
According to multiple news reports the crew of Virgin America flight 358 from San Francisco to Boston made an announcement calling for any passenger with a Note 7 to press their call button.
A passenger tweeted that the announcement said: "This isn’t a joke. We’re going to turn on the lights (it was 11.00pm) 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."
According to passenger Lucas Wojciechowski, the captain then said: "I don’t know if you’ve ever been diverted at 3.00am. Let me tell you, it is terrible. There is nothing open in the terminal. Nothing."
The culprit eventually came forward and admitted changing the name of the SSID wireless device to ‘Samsung Galaxy Note 7_1097’, even though they didn’t actually have a Samsung handset.
The US Department of Transportation has banned the phones from flights after several incidents o handsets catching 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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