Smoking Samsung phone sparks alert on Indian flight
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — A smoking Samsung phone sparked alarm on an Indian flight on Friday, the airline said, weeks after the manufacturer recalled 2.5-million units of its latest model when batteries began catching fire while charging.
Airline IndiGo said it had dealt with an incident involving “minor smoke” coming from a Samsung Note 2 device in a passenger’s hand luggage on a flight from Singapore to the southern Indian city of Chennai.
The phone was not the same model as that involved in the recall.
“IndiGo confirms that a few passengers travelling on 6E-054 from Singapore to Chennai noticed the smoke smell in the cabin this morning and immediately alerted the cabin crew on board,” the airline said in a statement.
“(The crew) observed smoke being emitted from Samsung Note 2 which was placed in the baggage (of a passenger) in overhead bin.”
Crew used a fire extinguisher before submerging the phone in water and the plane made a normal landing.
The world’s largest maker of mobile phones recalled 2.5-million units of its top-of-the-range model, Note 7 after its batteries began catching fire while charging.
The recall has put fresh pressure on Samsung, which is already squeezed by competition from Apple in the high-end market and Chinese rivals in the low-and mid-end segment.
