Air Canada has launched a project to counter the problem of portable electronic devices (PEDS) being lost, and potentially crushed, in its business class seats.
Many airlines tell passengers not to try to retrieve devices such as phones and tablets dropped between or underneath seats, because of the danger of the devices being damaged and their lithium batteries causing a fire.
But the dropped devices still need to be retrieved, and in some cases, this can’t be done until the aircraft has landed, and ground staff are called in.
Air Canada Vice President Andrew Yiu told website runwaygirlnetwork.com, ‘It’s easy to say, “get the flight attendants and they’ll get it”, but in most cases it’s still very difficult to do.’
The airline is looking at ways to catch devices dropped into lie-flat business class seats. An option is to install safety nets into the seat structure in a way which does not interfere with the seat’s functionality.
However, Yiu warns that because of the variation in aircraft seat design, there is no universal solution to the problem.
Flight Safety Australia drew readers’ attention to the problem more than three years ago in the article Lost your phone? Don’t move your seat!
For more information about lithium batteries and other dangerous goods, visit www.casa.gov.au/dg, or download CASA’s dangerous goods app.
