Air France Flight Returns Two Hours In After Passenger Misplaces Phone Onboard

An AirFrance plane was forced to return home just two hours into its flight after a passenger lost their phone on board.

The plane, flying on Friday from Paris to Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean, was forced to turn its 375 passengers and 12 crew members back to France around a quarter of the way into the flight. 

According to AirPlusNews, the plane was made to turn around as a safety precaution. 

Data from FlightRadar24 revealed that the plane looped once off the west coast of France before flying back to Paris’ Orly airport, where it began its journey. 

After landing back at Paris Orly at 3.25pm that day, the plane then took off for Guadeloupe 20 minutes later, arriving at 7.20pm local time that evening. 

AirPlusNews reported that it came a month after the same plane was made to turn back after a passenger dropped their phone into air vent, significantly increasing the risk of a fire. 

The plane, which was meant to fly from Paris to Fort-de-France, Martinique, was turned around after ‘a passenger’s phone slipped through a galley air vent and ended up in an inaccessible area’, according to AirPlusNews. 

‘Fearing that the phone’s lithium battery had been damaged, creating a fire risk, the crew decided to divert the flight to Paris as a precaution’, it added.