Swiss International Airlines - Smoke on Swiss Entertaiment System

Hi there,

I am not a regular on Swiss, so hence this is my first post here.

I was on Swiss LX 2609 ORD-ZRH on August 4th.

My entertaiment system got stuck, asked the FA to reset it, and it did not work.

Suddenly smoke came out from the right side of the entertaiment system.

I immediately informed the FA and turned off the entertaiment system and they did the right thing and turned off the entertaiment systems in that area and apologized to all passengers personally about that. This is fine and the right thing to do.

The purser and the captain contacted Zurich which told them that they can turn back on the entertaiment system and that the flight was not in danger. My system should be kept turned off. They did that. The purser was nice and offered me a seat in business, but since she had only one seat and I was flying with a 7 year old, could not take that generous offer. The purser was very nice and professional. My son actually and I was very impressed asked the purser that they will look at this before the plane departs again. She assured him this would be done. Again as far as service the FA and purser did all they could.

The system in my seat was still getting hot even though I did not use it since electricity was going to it. I was worried and and that kept me and for some reason my son from sleeping. I was thinking about the MD11 from New York to Geneva on Swissair which crashed due to entertaiment system fire.

I was very upset and worried. Can I ask for compensation in mileage do you think ? I am a mileage plus member will they be able to give me mileage plus miles ? I must say I found this experience quite distressing. What is the best way to contact Swiss and share this story as well compliment the purser. She was wonderful

Erez

Fire on SR111 started in the cockpit. There is no evidence that in flight entertainment system had anything to do with the crash.

Fire on SR111 started in the cockpit. There is no evidence that in flight entertainment system had anything to do with the crash.

I thought that it was arcing of wiring for the newly installed in flight entertainment system that started the fire?

In such cases they just pull out the circuit breaker for the block of seats the inop unit was in. So there was definitely no power on the unit that still felt 'getting hot'.

What would you ask compensation for
a) the non functioning entertainment system
b) the fact that this made you very upset and worried

What would you ask compensation for
a) the non functioning entertainment system
b) the fact that this made you very upset and worried

I would definitely ask for a)

Sure, b) might have hurt you more especially if you wanted to sleep, but there is no compensation for b) in general, while for a), they're used to that and will easily compensate you. You might be lucky if you describe your feelings to get a higher compensation, however as you're collecting miles on a foreign program and not LX's M&M, they're usually unable to put more than some rather small amount into it (I think it's either 5000 or 10000 miles) without having to escalate it.

I thought that it was arcing of wiring for the newly installed in flight entertainment system that started the fire?

IT WAS.... then it extended to the cockpit wall where the main box was affixed much in the way of the A320 series master computer cabin service screen

Thanks for the help. I sent swiss a correspondence and will see what they can do. I must say that it was quite distressing, overall no complaints to the flight staff, they did everything they could first to take care of safety and then to make sure everyone is comfortable. The purser itself was wonderful and swiss does wonderful job overall.

I did do so via the web site contact form.

Will keep this forum posted on my results.

Erez