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Burned Galaxy Note 7 from Southwest flight seized by federal regulators for testing

Burned Galaxy Note 7 from Southwest flight seized by federal regulators for testing

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‘Exigent circumstances’ had investigators working quickly

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Brian Green

Investigators with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) used a subpoena to seize the charred remains of Brian Green’s Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the phone that caught fire on a Southwest Airlines flight on October 5th. The investigatory team then drove the device to Bethesda, Maryland and hand-delivered it to the CPSC lab there for extensive testing.

Green told The Verge that the CPSC confiscated his device with a subpoena on October 6th, the day after the fire, while it was in the hands of the Louisville Fire Department. He said the CPSC apologized for that action as generally the agency prefers to get permission before taking possession of a device, but investigators were not able to get in touch with Green as quickly as they’d have liked.

The investigators called it "exigent circumstances" and felt the situation warranted the drastic action. The day of the fire, the CPSC’s chairman announced it "moving expeditiously to investigate this incident." Though we have not seen any official results from the the investigation, Samsung announced today that it was shutting down production of the Galaxy Note 7.