Coming back and a Worldly warning
 

Sunday morning I arrived back in the U.K. after a 2 year absence and I am pleased to report that after a long walk through Heathrow T3 my passage through immigration took less than 5 minutes with at least 100 people in front of me.
The gates were working!
The Worldly warning..
My flight was KL834 Biz class Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam with a 1h30 stopover in Singapore, an excellent service nothing to complain about except..
During the night I chose to charge my phone from the multiple sockets and UBS provided in a tray abeam my head, so far so good, with my phone on the table. At some time I snagged the cable and my phone followed the laws of gravity into the abyss known as under a biz class seat. A quick feel, nothing, so press the call button.
What followed was amazing, 4 lady cabin crew came to my rescue, 3 shining their torches and ripping cushions and machinery covers out, the 4th groping in the depths of the seat, finally extracting the phone from the machinery below.
The groper who was the senior cabin crew member said this has happened many times before and it will happen many times in the future, agreeing that the tray was too small and badly located to allow loss of a phone or glasses, even a passport.
I would like to express a real thank you to the cabin crew of KLM flight KL834

I always find KLM a joy to fly with.

It's a shame you were not flying with Thai Airways. Your story had a happy ending, that's all I can comment.

Thanks for the information Sultan Ismail. It is many years since I travelled KLM but always consider them when planning.

Looking at www.KLM.co.uk/contact
They invite suggestions and compliments although, curiously, it seems the form to fill in is under 'complaints'. If you are a Flying Blue member, log in first.

what was the aircraft?

It seems that crews are increasingly attuned to the potential danger presented by phones lost under seat cushions, and the importance of alerting them should this happen.

While an intact phone might not be too much of a risk, the danger is that subsequent use of the seat recline could damage a trapped phone and, in the worst case, cause a short or battery overheat and a consequent fire.

Asturias 56
The aircraft was a Boeing 777-300ER
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....dd9d2f1130.jpg

Thanks - we had the same issue on an ANZ one 3 years ago - it took two or three Cabin Staff to dismantle and then mantle the seat

They said it happened all the time........................ :(

It does happen a lot….not just phones, quite often passports, sometimes jewelry……and it almost always seemed to occur at the end of a umpteen hour sector into base when all those involved really wanted to do was simply high tail it to the car park.

Round out
 

Thank you for the interest taken in my simple tale, after a day of intense activity in Cambridge I arrived back in Kuala Lumpur this evening.
In spite of the complex COVID-19 protocols in Malaysia, from landing to being in a cab just one hour.
Over and out

I can well imagine that an item slips down in the night - possibly from a trouser pocket - and is only found to be missing during descent. A good lesson for all of us to look out for these small things.

PAXboy
It has been part of the cabin briefing on some EK flights I have been on over the last few years. For example” If any of your possessions fall into the seat, do not move the seat and call for FE” or something along those lines. Must be happening quite a lot, and on long haul as others have said, not at the best time for passenger or CC.
Cheers
Mr Mac

We have our first long haul in two years coming up at the end of March. I do recall hearing these announcements before - but it seems like a long time ago! Pre-smart phones, the biggest C-class seat problem I had was the failure of the personal reading light on LH (a 343, I think it was) and the CC were brilliant. Asked me to step out for a moment and then attacked the unit. After a few minutes I told them not to worry but they persisted and got it working. So I am confident they would find a wayward phone.

PAXboy
LH cabin crew can in some cases arguably can be a little stiff, but I generally find them good and that sort of stuff is their forty, and not as subservient as some others, but not trying to be as chummy as some BA / Virgin cabin crew can try to be when I used to fly with them. But I will laugh to my dying day about watching a Virgin CC sample a Yogurt when asked about the flavours by a passenger who responded by sticking her finger in it and then licking it and then saying “Strawberry “ though it has been a few years on both. She did get a new one from the galley 🙂

Cheers
Mr Mac