Samsung, the electronics company currently putting the “call” in “recall,” may need to re-examine its phone manufacturing supply chain. Again.
After a series of Samsung’s new Note 7 phones caught fire in widely publicized incidents late this summer, the Korean manufacturer traced the problem back to a “battery cell issue” and launched a voluntary recall.
On Wednesday, however, one of the supposedly safe new phones also caught fire, forcing the evacuation of a Southwest Airlines flight in Louisville.
Passenger Brian Green provided a photo of the burned Note 7 to The Verge, explaining that he recently had it replaced; the outlet established that the phone did in fact appear to be a replacement model.
“He said he had just powered it down, when it made a popping noise and started smoking,” Green’s wife, Sarah, told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “He took it out of his pocket and threw it on the ground.”
“I would love to know why the replacement phone is doing what the other one was doing,” she added.
Brian Green told The Verge the phone burned through the carpet of the plane and scorched the subfloor before it came to rest.
No one was injured in the incident and all customers and crew safely deplaned the flight, a Southwest spokesperson told The Huffington Post, adding, “We encourage our customers to comply with the FAA Pack Safe guidelines.”
The FAA “strongly advises” passengers traveling with pre-recall Note 7s not to turn them on or charge them while on board or to pack them in checked baggage. (Of course, assuming Green had a replacement model, he should have been in the clear.)
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is reportedly investigating the incident.
Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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