Imagine loading up your tablet with hours of entertainment ahead of your international flight, only for it to get stuck outside of your reach. As bad as that sounds, imagine if your stuck tablet made the flight divert to a different airport hours away from your destination.
Such was the situation for an individual flying on a Lufthansa aircraft from Los Angeles to Munich, whose tablet was “jammed in a Business Class seat,” forcing the plane to make an unscheduled landing in Boston, Business Insider reports.
According to a statement from Lufthansa, the tablet showed “visible signs of deformation due to the seat’s movements” while stuck. As for why this would necessitate a diversion, the lithium battery in tablets could overheat, catch fire or explode if it is damaged.
“At Lufthansa, the safety of our passengers and crew is always our top priority,” the airline says. “The diversion was a purely precautionary measure.”
The flight eventually resumed with a three-hour delay, which is a long time to wait but probably felt even longer for the person whose now-destroyed tablet made everybody late.