UPDATE: Apple iPhone On Australian Flight Sparks Safety Probe
November 29 2011 - 12:39AM
Dow Jones News
A self-combusting iPhone 4 that became red hot on an Australian
commercial aircraft and had to be extinguished by a flight
attendant has sparked a public investigation, safety authorities
confirmed Tuesday.
Small Australian carrier Regional Express said in a statement
that the incident on a service flying to Sydney from northern New
South Wales state has been reported to the Australian Transport
Safety Bureau, or ATSB, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority,
CASA, for investigation and directions.
The incident isn't unique. Rare occurrences of overheating in
isolated Apple Inc. (AAPL) products have been reported before, but
such experiences haven't been confined to that company's products
or to smart phones. In a well-documented case, Dell in 2006
recalled millions of lithium batteries after they caused its
laptops to catch fire and Hewlett-Packard had similar problems with
batteries in some of its laptops in 2009.
A spokesman for CASA confirmed the incident has been referred to
the regulator and to the ATSB for investigation. "There's nothing
for us to do at this stage, beyond looking at the outcome of the
ATSB's investigation," the CASA spokesman said.
"We look forward to working with the officials investigating
this incident," said a spokeswoman for Apple in Australia.
The ATSB said on its website that its investigation of the
incident, which it said involved fumes, smoke and fire, is active
and continuing.
Regional Express said that a passengers' s phone started
emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red
glow shortly after the plane landed in Sydney.
"In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the
flight attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the
red glow was extinguished successfully," the airline said, adding
that nobody was hurt.
-By Ross Kelly, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4692; Ross.Kelly@dowjones.com
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