Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 might be nearly dead, but it’s still managing to create panic with its name alone. iMore‘s Managing Editor, Serenity Caldwell, posted a lengthy story on Twitter that shows just how insane the entire situation has become, and how ridiculously crappy it is that some people think the situation is just a big joke.
According to Caldwell, she arrived early at the airport for a flight when she noticed that her departure gate was still teeming with anxious flyers waiting for their plane. The previous inbound flight had been delayed extensively, and nobody seemed to know why.
Ready for a fun holiday travel story about horrible people?
— Serenity Caldwell (@settern) December 20, 2016
Eventually word filtered down that passengers on the flight noticed a Galaxy Note 7 hotspot on their Wi-Fi lists, causing a great deal of panic on the part of the crew. The Note 7 is banned from all U.S. flights due to its risk of fire and explosion, so a Note 7 hotspot is obviously a pretty big red flag.
Open my laptop on the plane and notice a Galaxy Note 7 wifi hotspot https://t.co/y1csn9gOsZ pic.twitter.com/9Z5IJULuPs
— Lucas Wojciechowski (@lucaswoj) December 20, 2016
The plane was prepared to make an emergency landing in order to take care of the situation, but that didn’t end up being necessary. Apparently there was no Note 7 on board at all, and the troubling Wi-Fi hotspot that caused the uproar was one passenger’s idea of a joke. The hotspot itself was actually a different device which had its SSID changed to “Galaxy_Note7_1097.”
The crew managed to locate the passenger whose device had spawned the panic, though it’s not clear at this time whether any further action was taken against him. The flight ended up getting in extremely late, further inconveniencing travelers who were forced to make other arrangements, all thanks to one idiot’s idea of fun.
