A Lufthansa flight from Los Angeles to Munich was diverted to Boston in the early hours of Thursday, April 24, due to an iPad that was found in the business-class seat of a passenger, which raised safety concerns. The crew of flight LH453, citing overheating and fire hazards, decided to make an emergency landing at Logan International Airport around 2:30 AM local time. Lufthansa reported that the iPad showed clear defects, increasing the potential fire risk.
Lufthansa engineers safely removed the device from the seat after the landing, and after this the plane departed from Boston to Munich with a slight delay, arriving about three hours later than scheduled. A Lufthansa representative stated that the diversion of the flight, which had 461 passengers on board, was "purely precautionary" to minimize any risks associated with the damaged lithium-ion battery.
He added that the dispatchers and the crew of the aircraft agreed that an emergency landing was necessary "to avoid any possible threats, especially related to the risk of overheating." Lithium-ion batteries can overheat or ignite when damaged or in confined cabin conditions.
Last year, a British Airways flight from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh made an emergency landing after an engine caught fire, which caused one of the passengers to be the only fatality among 88 people on board.
