Crew aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Norfolk, VA to Atlanta this morning extinguished a spare electronics battery that caught fire in the rear of the aircraft. But no, Samsung says it probably wasn’t a Galaxy Note 7.
About 15 minutes into the flight, a passenger called out that there was a fire in row 34, according to a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot who was on the flight.
Another passenger said she was two rows behind the smoking battery, and had settled in for a nap when she smelled smoke. Her seat mate opened the lavatory door, revealing a plume of smoke.
“It wasn’t a big flaming fire, it was more smoldering smoke,” the first passenger said, noting that passengers and crew members worked well together to figure to where the fire was coming from. The Pilot reporter adds that the attendants were right on top of the situation.
“The flight attendants responded quickly and knew what to do,” she said, and they extinguished the flames.
No one was injured and the flight continued on and landed safely in Atlanta.
It’s unclear who owned the battery, but Samsung spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that it has “received no information to indicate that this is related to a Samsung device. The Note 7 doesn’t have a removable battery, either, while the battery that started smoking on the Delta flight was a “spare battery not affixed to a device,” the airline said.
Delta says its crew members “acted quickly to immediately dissipate the smoke,” and that it will work with aviation safety officials to investigate the source and type of the battery.
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration asked owners of the Note 7 to not use or charge the devices on planes after reports that their batteries could catch fire and explode. Just last night, Samsung finally issued an official recall of the devices, two weeks after halting all sales of the devices. The company’s U.S. president releasing a video apology to customers this morning.
It’s important to note that while Samsung has been grabbing headlines for its battery debacle lately, it’s not the first company to deal with exploding lithium ion batteries — and it won’t be the last.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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