B757 captain reported concern regarding company policy regarding cell phones which are lost/left on ...

Narrative:

While reviewing the paperwork before the flight; I noticed the aircraft had a lost cell phone in its maintenance history. A passenger reported they dropped an iphone behind the sidewall panel at seat 38F near the floor. When the aircraft landed in ZZZZ; maintenance attempted to find the phone to no avail; and the aircraft returned to the us. Finally; maintenance removed a cargo access panel and found the phone. My flight was 2 days later on this aircraft; but I feel it is unsafe to dispatch aircraft with known 'lost' phones. It seems this is company's policy; as a similar event happened on a flight I was to fly; but the mechanic did find the phone before I had a chance to refuse the aircraft. I was told by the operations manager that company deems it an acceptable risk. Does the union have an official position on this growing 'problem'? I was asked by the union to submit a report regarding this issue to help facilitate a discussion with the safety board. In light of exploding batteries and obvious security issues; I personally would not fly any aircraft with a lost phone. I understand there are a lot of electronic devices in the cargo holds; however we have fire suppression for those areas. This particular phone was behind the cargo hold; not in it.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Captain reported concern regarding company policy regarding cell phones which are lost/left on aircraft and not recovered before the aircraft is dispatched for subsequent flights.

Narrative: While reviewing the paperwork before the flight; I noticed the aircraft had a lost cell phone in its maintenance history. A passenger reported they dropped an iPhone behind the sidewall panel at seat 38F near the floor. When the aircraft landed in ZZZZ; maintenance attempted to find the phone to no avail; and the aircraft returned to the US. Finally; Maintenance removed a cargo access panel and found the phone. My flight was 2 days later on this aircraft; but I feel it is unsafe to dispatch aircraft with known 'lost' phones. It seems this is Company's policy; as a similar event happened on a flight I was to fly; but the mechanic did find the phone before I had a chance to refuse the aircraft. I was told by the Operations Manager that Company deems it an acceptable risk. Does the union have an official position on this growing 'problem'? I was asked by the union to submit a report regarding this issue to help facilitate a discussion with the safety board. In light of exploding batteries and obvious security issues; I personally would not fly any aircraft with a lost phone. I understand there are a lot of electronic devices in the cargo holds; however we have fire suppression for those areas. This particular phone was behind the cargo hold; not in it.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1469656
Time
Date	201707
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Security Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Electronic Device

B757 captain reported concern regarding company policy regarding cell phones which are lost/left on aircraft and not recovered before the aircraft is dispatched for subsequent flights.