A Southwest Airlines flight heading to Baltimore from Louisville was evacuated due to smoke in the plane coming from a replaced unit of Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
Everyone onboard the plane, including the crew, left the plane through the main cabin without any injuries. While this might not be something of a concern for the Southwest Airlines, it is not the best news for Samsung and the hopes it had on the Galaxy Note 7.
The phone was announced in early August and started selling a few weeks later. In the first days, the phablet received some really awesome reviews thanks to its great design, top-notch hardware specs, world-class camera as well as cutting-edge technology that includes an Edge screen and an iris scanner, among others. However, things started going wrong for the handset when explosions started showing up almost everywhere, leading to the company recalling all faulty Galaxy Note 7 units.
After a few weeks, Samsung shipped more than half a million units back to the U.S., claiming that these had been fixed and they will no longer burst into flames like their earlier counterparts. U.S. carriers resumed the selling of the phones and apparently, the victim, Brian Green, says that he had picked the Galaxy Note 7 unit from AT&T on September 21. A photo of the phone’s package confirms that indeed the device is a replacement unit thanks to a black square symbol. In addition, Green said that the phone had a green battery icon, another indicator that it is a safe model.
Surprisingly, the phone was not working as with the other cases before. Like asked by the flight crew, the Galaxy Note 7 had been powered down and in his pocket. When it started smoking, he immediately dropped it on the plane with smoke coming from all over the handset.
The re-occurrence of the issue has led to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency that is in charge of overseeing the recall of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in the U.S., saying that it will investigate the matter once again. On the other hand, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is expected to come in with even more restrictions regarding the flagship.
Usually, the FAA recommends that phones be switched off when on planes and if Samsung Galaxy Note 7 units can still explode even when turned off, the agency might be forced to take more drastic measures against the Note 7.
The timing of this issue could come at a better time for Google, which launched the Pixel and Pixel XL phones this week. The handsets are already up for preorders, with Best Buy listing the availability date as October 20. Apple also recently made its mark in the smartphone market by unveiling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus – something that promises an interesting conclusion to the year for smartphone lovers.