A Munich-bound Lufthansa Airbus A380 was diverted to Boston after departing Los Angeles Airport (LAX), due to an electronic tablet jammed in a business class seat.
Lufthansa flight LH453 was in the air for around three hours on April 24, 2025, when the flight crew and air traffic control elected to divert it to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
Lufthansa told AeroTime that, when the decision was made to divert the A380, registered D-AIMC, the tablet was showing “visible signs of deformation due to the seat’s movements”.
As a precaution over concerns that the device might overheat and to eliminate any potential risk, it was felt that the safest option was to fly to Boston where Lufthansa Technik technicians are based.
After over six hours of flying, the crew and 461 passengers landed in Boston where the table was safely removed and inspected for damage.
A spokesperson for Lufthansa told AeroTime that the safety of its passengers and crew is “always our top priority” and the diversion was a “purely precautionary measure”.
“The flight then continued and arrived in Munich at 16:40 CEST with a delay of three hours,” Lufthansa’s spokesperson said.
There have been other recent incidents where flights have been diverted due to electronic devices becoming stuck in seats.
On May 19, 2024, a United Airlines flight from Zurich to Chicago was diverted to Shannon Airport (SNN) in Ireland after a laptop became stuck beneath a business class seat.
As with the recent Lufthansa flight, the United Airlines crew had been concerned about safety after they were unable to dislodge the laptop.
Although unconfirmed by the airline, it is understood that the device’s lithium-ion battery was viewed as a potential fire risk.
Also in March 2025, an Air France Boeing 777 was forced to turn back to Paris after a passenger lost their mobile phone on the aircraft.
