Don't go looking for your lost phone on a Qantas flight.

[Alanwsg]

From 'The register' ...

Airline safety spiel prohibits finding lost phones ? The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/06/airline_safety_spiel_prohibits_finding_lost_phones/)

[4468]

Actually

Don't go looking for your 'lost' phone on ANY flight, if you're going to cause a fire!!!

[AerocatS2A]

More to the point, don't move your seat or anyone else's in the process of looking for your phone. I doubt they care if you check your pockets and your handbag.

[cattletruck]

Actually, the pre-flight safety spiel on Qantas is quite novel.

Re the mobile phone dropping down the back of the seat the procedure is don't recline the seat and call the hostie.

See, I was paying attention after all.

[BPLLurker]

They said exactly the same on my BA flight last week

[onetrack]

Sounds like a pretty sensible precaution to me. That phone arcing up with all the resultant smoke, would definitely create some major consternation.

[Roger Greendeck]

Cathay make a similar announcement about phones and Air New Zealand make one about making sure children's fingers are clear before moving seats.

[Airmann]

3 lost phones on 3 different flights in the last 2 months. It's becoming an epidemic. And what if the seat is reclined when the phone falls in and the flight is full? Jump seat?

[oldchina]

All phones should be placed in in jug of water on boarding.

[PAXboy]

I heard this warning when on half a dozen QF sectors in Feb/April this year. So perhaps there was another event that preceeded the event reported as May this year.

[172driver]

Same on Lufthansa couple of months ago (A380, if it makes a difference)

[stilton]

Goes along with making sure your camera's clear of the sidestick when you move your
seat forward

[NSEU]

Well before this incident it was known that moving the position of a seat would most likely destroy any lost objects. Best to pull the cushions up first and go looking for any lost items with a torch.

Bad seat design... maybe.

It's lucky the fire didn't spread. All kinds of paper items find their way down there, too... menus, customs/immigration cards, safety cards, inflight magazines...

[golfyankeesierra]

The issue of lost phones in seats is already known since this incident:
Report: Air France B772 over Atlantic on Dec 9th 2010, lithium battery fire in cabin (http://avherald.com/h?article=47057db2)
A lot of airlines have the announcement for some time.

[skridlov]

All phones should be placed in in jug of water on boarding.
This would require all passenger aircraft to contain big jugs...

[RAD_ALT_ALIVE]

And sadly the uniforms nowadays won't support that skridlov...

[mmurray]

And keep on eye on those sheep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhbXFHrDmTg

[sb_sfo]

I've had to retrieve a fair number of lost electronics. My favorite is when I handed a gentleman his freshly-modified L-shaped iPhone. I'm guessing he'll keep better track of it in the future.

[mmurray]

Someone needs to produce a flying vest with lots of pockets like an anglers vest. Somewhere for phone, kindle, headphones, toothbrush, tablets, glasses, wallet, water bottle, passport ... Get it FAA approved for use on evacuation slides. It would be handy for passing through security when you have to empty your pockets as well. Just dump the whole vest in the tray. All the passengers problems solved except for looking like a dork !

[PAXboy]

Many already have, mmurray. I had one about 6 years ago but left it in a (good quality) hotel in Oxford and the expensive jacket was never seen again ...

[FlyboyUK]

You must have seen the travelling gilet, generally worn by gentlemen of a certain age heading on holiday at the airport, looking like they're going on safari rather than a week in Benidorm. Kharki coloured with plenty of pockets ��

[Ngineer]

Pulling premium seats apart in the search of missing phones is becoming quite a common task of the line ngineer. In every case that I have experienced the phone has been retrieved undamaged and returned promptly to the passenger who was standing by the seat waiting. In every instance it has taken less than 15 minutes, and I was grateful that the passenger and crew had the common sense not to move the seat whilst the phone was in there.

[Ian W]

Flight yesterday went a step further - any Samsung Galaxy 7 phones were to be powered down and stored in carry on until after deplaning. Apparently, they do not need the assistance of seat mechanics to become incandescent.

[badgerh]

Ian W - It is Galaxy NOTE 7, still brand new and a very hot item. We also got specific instructions on Lufthansa to power it off and put it in hand luggage

[onetrack]

Samsung must be pushing the electronics and batteries to the limit in the new models. I have a Galaxy Note 3 and it's an excellent smartphone, and has never shown any tendency to cause problems via overheating or via battery problems.
It's nearly 3 yrs old, been accidentally dropped from around 2 metres height multiple times, has a smashed screen (despite a rubber-lined steel protective case), and it still functions flawlessly.
What gets me, is the Note 7 doesn't appear to have any huge advances in technology over the Note 3, just incremental "improvements". However, the "improvements" are obviously pushing the battery limits.