United Airlines Flight from Zürich to Chicago Makes History as First-Ever Diversion Due to Laptop Lodged in Business-Class Seat

A United Airlines Polaris business-class seat
A United Airlines flight en route from Zürich to Chicago had to divert to Shannon before heading out over the Atlantic in what appears to be the first flight diversion due to a stuck passenger laptop in a business-class seat.
The Boeing 767-300, operating as United Flight 12 and equipped with the Chicago-based carrier’s relatively new Polaris business-class cabin, left the gate at Flughafen Zürich at 9:46 a.m. local time and was wheels up at 10:08 a.m.  The captain opted to divert not because he was concerned as to whether the passenger would have access to his laptop but any device powered by lithium ion batteries that would be inaccessible over the Atlantic would be a major safety issue.
The aircraft touched down at Shannon Airport in County Clare at 1:43 p.m. IST, or Irish Summer Time, and arrived at the gate at 1:51 p.m.
“United flight 12 scheduled from Zurich to Chicago landed safely in Shannon to address a potential safety risk caused by a laptop being stuck in an inaccessible location,” the airline said in a rather masterful understatement.
Shannon Airport played an important role in the development of duty-free sales to travelers. In the 1940s when Brendan O’Regan opened up a duty-free shop that sold Irish goods to passengers on a refueling stop at Rineanna (now Shannon) Airport where he served as catering controller.
While duty-free shops still exist at airports, American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, ended duty-free sales on board its aircraft in 2015 and United followed in 2017.
In Shannon, technicians attempted to remove the lodged laptop from the seat but were unsuccessful and had to resort to accessing the seat from below deck, which required removing checked bags from a forward hold.
The flight diversion became flight cancellation after the aircraft had been on the ground for over an hour and the crew timed out, which meant that the 157 passengers would be spending the night in Éire. United proceeded to provide passengers with hotel rooms for the night and making new travel arrangements for them.
“We’re working quickly to get customers to their final destination,” the airline said in a statement.
Business- and first-class lie-flat seats are notorious for their voracious appetite for electronic devices. In 2014, then Associate Editor Jesse Sokolow’s Apple iPhone was swallowed by a Flagship First seat on the American Airlines A321T and it was never seen again.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)