A United Airlines flight from Dulles Airport to Rome was forced to turn back midway through its trip after a passenger's lost laptop vanished into the plane's innards. According to the airline, the computer slipped behind a cabin wall panel on the Oct. 15 flight and found its way via a gap into the cargo hold, prompting pilots to return to the DC-area airport out of an "abundance of caution," per the Washington Post. The concern? The laptop was still powered on, and its lithium battery, which could become a fire hazard if it overheated or otherwise malfunctioned, was now in an area of the Boeing 767 without a fire suppression system.
One pilot described the incident to Boston air traffic controllers as a "minor situation," clarifying that he wasn't deeming it an emergency but preferred not to cross the Atlantic with an unaccounted-for electronic device. "We don't know the status of it, we can't access it, we can't see it," the pilot explained. An air traffic controller responded, "I've never heard anything like that before. Good story to tell at the pilot lounge."
Business Insider notes the aircraft was only about 50 miles off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, when it was forced to pull a 180. After the plane landed at Dulles a little more than two hours after takeoff, maintenance crews recovered the rogue laptop and inspected the aircraft. The flight, carrying 216 passengers, eventually departed again just before 3:30am local time, arriving in Rome about 4 1/2 hours later than originally scheduled.
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