While statistically not as dangerous as travel by car, flying on a plane is very risky, making safety a top priority. Naturally, all staff aboard an aircraft should behave and react based on that fact alone, yet one flight attendant didn’t feel as though one blatant fire hazard was an issue. It all began when an Illinois passenger from O’Hare was on a United Airlines flight to Denver when the plane encountered some turbulence. Their power bank flew about and struck an armrest, after which it started to bizarrely swell. Very concerned, the passenger called for a flight attendant.
At first, the United Airlines flight attendant spoke through the intercom, saying that the call button should only be used for emergencies, and ignored the passenger. The individual didn’t give up and waited until the flight attendant came up to them to show the swollen portable battery pack. “She told me to hold on to it because we are landing in less than an hr,” the passenger explained in their Reddit post on r/unitedairlines.
Yet, as their concerns grew, so did the power bank, this time, swelling completely out of its enclosure. The passenger recalled, “I called the call button again. Same FA showed up and shrugged it off. ‘Sir, as I said. We are landing very soon.'” Fortunately, the plane landed without a hitch, but when the passenger showed the battery pack to the staff at the airport, they asked why a flight attendant didn’t handle it, as it was clearly a dangerous risk to everyone on board. The individual explained the behavior of the flight attendant earlier, to which the staff said they’ll file a report since she went against standard procedure.
The point of the Reddit post was to ask about what this procedure was, and many users in the comment section mentioned the same thing: “They have fireproof bags on board they are supposed to put overheating batteries in.” However, the United Airlines flight attendant was either too lazy or incompetent to ensure the swollen power bank wasn’t a danger, instead leaving it in the passenger’s care to deal. This goes completely against how flight attendants are supposed to act, according to multiple commenters.
“FA was absolutely wrong. Thing could’ve caught fire,” remarks one person. “This is crazy behavior. The FA should definitely be investigated and retrained because this could have really spiraled out of control and been tragic,” added another. Regardless of whether it was incompetence or ignorance, United Airlines definitely needs to retrain or discipline that flight attendant.
