Southwest Airlines flight 994 from Louisville to Baltimore was evacuated this morning while still at the gate because of a smoking Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. All passengers and crew exited the plane via the main cabin door and no injuries were reported, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson told The Verge.
More worrisome is the fact that the phone in question was a replacement Galaxy Note 7, one that was deemed to be safe by Samsung. The Verge spoke to Brian Green, owner of the Note 7, on the phone earlier today and he confirmed that he had picked up the new phone at an AT&T store on September 21st. A photograph of the box shows the black square symbol that indicates a replacement Note 7 and Green said it had a green battery icon.
Green said that he had powered down the phone as requested by the flight crew and put it in his pocket when it began smoking. He dropped it on the floor of the plane and a "thick grey-green angry smoke" was pouring out of the device. Green’s colleague went back onto the plane to retrieve some personal belongings and said that the phone had burned through the carpet and scorched the subfloor of the plane.
He said the phone was at around 80 percent of battery capacity when the incident occurred and that he only used a wireless charger since receiving the device.
Running the phone's IMEI (blurred for privacy reasons) through Samsung's recall eligibility checker returns a "Great News!" message saying that Green's Galaxy Note 7 is not affected by the recall.
Samsung is likely in full-fledged crisis mode at this point, as a replacement phone catching fire would be truly disastrous for the company's image and finances. The Verge has been in contact with Samsung, which issued a statement that is questionable at best given our findings:
Until we are able to retrieve the device, we cannot confirm that this incident involves the new Note7. We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause. Once we have examined the device we will have more information to share.
Green’s Note 7 is in the hands of the Louisville Fire Department’s arson unit for investigation and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is opening an investigation into the incident. He has already replaced it with an iPhone 7.
Updated 3:15PM ET: Added recall lookup screenshot.
Updated 4:03PM ET: Added Samsung comment.
Updated 6:45PM ET: Added link to US CPSC investigation announcement.
Comments
Samsung is writing the manual on how to screw up in every possible way.
By pf on 10.05.16 1:18pm
That and paving the way for the competition to pick up the pieces.
Google’s Pixel, of course the iPhone 7 and even phones from HTC and LG may see a sales bump for those that want to stay in the Android ecosystem but want to avoid anything from Samsung.
By JohnnyMnemonic on 10.05.16 1:41pm
Yeah, Note 4 owner here… my next phone’s going to be an LG.
By badasscat1 on 10.05.16 1:54pm
I thought an LG phone was going to be great as I had the Nexus 4 (rev 1 and 2) and the Nexus 5. So I got the LG G5, the screen gets burn-in after a few months!? And battery life is poor at times along with performance. And restarting the phone doesn’t always help. I’ve had to factory reset my phone twice in 4 months. I only factory reset my Nexus 4 once, but it turned out it was an app issue (battery drain) and once on my Nexus 5 over a 2 1/2 year period because the battery was so warn after 2 years I thought it was maybe an app issue.
By NeatOman on 10.06.16 1:43am
I hope so. There are actually some pretty good choices out there. Between LG and the Moto phone with like 2-3 day s of battery life.
By TCrimson05t on 10.05.16 4:18pm
What is most interesting is Samsung SDI (The manufacture of the previous "bad" batteries) always claimed it was a circuit/design issue and not a battery issue. I think this is a case of Samsung pointing a shot gun in the direction of where it thought the fault might be and pulling the trigger hoping to hit the target. You do this when you don’t want your multi 100 million USD product languishing in no-mans-land.
By StevenRN on 10.05.16 2:05pm
Also, the victim claims he only used inductive craving since receiving device (no high speed dodgy aftermarket battery packs) and the device was not being charged at the time. He simply turned it off and put it down, apparently.
Concerning.
By darwiniandude on 10.05.16 5:13pm
interesting. does inductive charging put more or less of a strain on the battery than normal wall charging, high-speed wall charging?
it certainly produces more internal heat, correct?
By quantumaspect on 10.06.16 7:03am
The heat would be in the charging circuit, which presumably lies ontop of the battery.
By ench on 10.06.16 11:23am
>$1B business
By NavSS on 10.05.16 7:38pm
I don’t feel this is Samsung’s problem. It’s probably some stubborn jerk who didn’t wanna replace it because his "life" was too important!
By baandoptager on 10.05.16 2:29pm
Read the article. Please. Seriously.
By privilegejunkie on 10.05.16 2:31pm
The article? Just the title lol
By PhatDummy on 10.05.16 2:48pm
Even the title has the info…
By Gab_Gagnon on 10.05.16 3:50pm
And if you can’t be bothered reading the title take a peek at the URL.
By flathunt on 10.06.16 3:34am
Haha! Feelings.
By mister2d on 10.05.16 3:20pm
Ffs, read the goddamn article.
By WayAway on 10.06.16 7:16am
I hate how much Samsung manages to hurt android’s reputation. Many people view them as one and the same.
The fact that it seems like everyone I see online, and in this article either swapped out their Samsung phone for another shitty Samsung phone, or went to iPhone.
It’s the only android phone I know of catching on fire right now.
TouchWiz was crappy anyway.
By Rolf on 10.05.16 2:48pm
I think the typical consumer sees the choice as Samsung or Apple, not Android or iPhone, mostly because of marketing and reputation. Since Samsung has blow reputation and PR, a lot of prople just choose "the other one."
By RF9 on 10.05.16 3:30pm
they have about 5x the marketshare of their closest competitor currently. When you are the top by that margin, you kinda represent android;
By JesseDegenerate on 10.05.16 3:47pm
I agree, but average consumers DO look at it the way RF9 talks. Its less andriod vs ios and more ‘samsung vs apple vs everyone else’
By Eldaino on 10.05.16 5:08pm
I’ve in the past asked a client "do you have an iPhone?" And been told "yes". When quizzed further or seeing the device "it’s a Samsung iPhone"
Deadly serious here. People don’t know. "My daughter told me to get an iPhone. The nice man in the phone store said they’re the same"
By darwiniandude on 10.05.16 5:16pm
Oh man I fucking hate people like that in stores.
I was calling in for an iPhone 7 for my mom and the asshole as T-Mobile told me to get her a S7 Edge because it is just a "Glass iPhone."
By Cpt_Slim_Jim on 10.05.16 9:38pm
Same here, but in a different country. I was offered a S7 Edge as an iPhone 7 replacement at Telmex, as "they are about the same and you won’t notice a difference".
By carlos-teran on 10.06.16 1:25am
What pisses me off is that the advertising strategy of paying stores to push your phones is the main reason Samsung has their market share.
I might not like Apple much, but I appreciate that they have large market share because they make a great product (and have good advertising).
Good Samsung phones are a side effect of them having high market share, not a cause.
By Indefinite Implosion on 10.06.16 3:22am