Samsung battery woes refuse to end. Even before the Android giant could recover from the aftermath of exploding Note 7 batteries, another exploding Note is back to haunt the company.
A Samsung Galaxy Note 2 reportedly caught fire in chennai. To make the matter worse, the entire incident unfolded on a Singapore-Chennai Indigo flight (6E-054) early Friday morning. Thankfully, no passenger was hurt and the plane managed to land safely.
As per the Times of India report, the phone was placed in the overhead bin. The flight crew noticed some smoke emitting from the bin, possibly due to fire. As precautionary step, they used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire.
“The crew noticed smoke from the bin and found the device was emitting smoke after possibly catching fire. They used fire extinguishers on it,” said a spokesperson of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
IndiGO has also issued a statement on this incident— “The crew quickly identified minor smoke coming from the hat-rack of seat 23 C and simultaneously informed the pilot-in-command who further alerted the ATC of the situation on board. Taking precautionary measure, the cabin crew on priority relocated all passengers on other seats, and further observed smoke being emitted from a Samsung note 2 which was placed in the baggage (of a passenger) in the overhead bin. The crew discharged the fire extinguisher which is as per the standard operating procedures prescribed by the aircraft manufacturer, and quickly transferred the Samsung note 2 into a container filled with water in lavatory.”
On this incident, the DGCA has issued an advisory spurring passengers to keep all their Samsung Galaxy Note Series devices turned off during the entire duration of a flight.
Samsung has already issued an official statement regarding the ordeal.
“We are aware of an incident involving one of our devices. At Samsung, customer safety is our highest priority. We are in touch with relevant authorities to gather more information, and are looking into the matter.” Samsung spokesperson said in a statement.
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It would be unfair to criticize Samsung, at least before the investigation is over. The passenger might be using a faulty third party powerbank for all we know. Similar incidents have also been reported by OnePlus and Xiaomi Mi4i users in the very recent past, but since the Note 7 battery debacle is still a burning issue, Samsung is bound to face a lot of heat.
