In the midst of the exploding Galaxy Note 7 saga, the federal aviation authority took the sensible decision to ban the combustible handset from all US flights. But it seems the infamous smartphone is still causing problems, after a Wi-Fi hotspot named “Galaxy Note7_1097” almost resulted in a plane making an emergency landing.
The BBC reports that the incident occurred on Virgin America flight 358 from San Francisco to Boston. Passenger Lucas Wojciechowski discovered the worryingly named hotspot when he opened his laptop.
Open my laptop on the plane and notice a Galaxy Note 7 wifi hotspot https://t.co/y1csn9gOsZ pic.twitter.com/9Z5IJULuPs
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
Once the crew suspected one of Samsung’s recalled devices could be on the aircraft, an announcement went out for the owner to press their call button. When nobody responded to the request after 15 minutes, the cabin crew announced: "This isn't a joke. We're going to turn on the lights and search everyone's bag until we find it."
After another 15 minutes, the pilot threatened to divert the plane to Wyoming unless the person responsible came forward. "I don't know if you've ever been diverted at 3am," Wojciechowski said in a Tweet. "Let me tell you, it is terrible. There is nothing open in the terminal. Nothing."
The owner eventually came forward, at which point it was discovered that there was no Galaxy Note 7 on the plane. He or she had only been using its name in their SSID, possibly as a way of trolling other passengers. Wojciechowski believes that no action was taken against the owner.
After the plane had landed, iMore editor Serenity Caldwell tweeted that the ruckus had resulted in the cancelation of the following flight. But Virgin America said no flights were delayed or canceled.
“The U.S. Department of Transportation has banned the transport of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 onboard all U.S. aircraft, and Virgin America actively informs guests that they should not bring these devices onboard. As such, when our InFlight Teammates see potential evidence of this device onboard, they take it seriously. In this case, there was no such device – the safety of the passengers and crew was never in question. And to clarify in your article, no flights were canceled or delayed as a result,” the company said in a statement.
https://www.techspot.com/news/67521-plane-almost-diverted-after-someone-names-wi-fi.html
