About 15 minutes after Delta flight 2557 took off from Norfolk, a cell phone battery caught fire in the cabin. The flight in question was operated by a MD-80, and was headed to Atlanta.
Delta MD-88, type of plane on which the battery caught fire
According to witnesses, the cabin was dark at the time, when someone called out a fire in row 34. A few retired military personnel helped out the flight attendant in taming the fire. Someone doused the battery with a bottle of water, while flight attendants used the fire extinguisher onboard. Some of them also helped move other passengers to the rear of the cabin, where the smoke hadn’t spread to.
You never appreciate flight attendants till there's a fire in the cabin. #delta #professionals #oxfordbound #GOREBS
— kerry dougherty (@kerrydougherty) September 16, 2016
What she said. Just happened on my flight. https://t.co/Md5tKeMUJR
— Robyn Sidersky (@robynsidersky) September 16, 2016
On September 2, Samsung announced a formal recall of the Galaxy Note 7, amidst reports of the phone battery overheating and catching fire. A few Australian airlines quickly began banning the phone on their flights, and many US airlines began making announcements in terminal and onboard discouraging passengers from using the phone. Passenger Kristi Parrotte mentioned a similar announcement was made onboard this flight.
The battery that caught fire was a spare, and it is not clear what model of phone the battery was for. No one was hurt from the incident, but the seat did sustain some damage.
(HT The Virginia Pilot)
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3 comments
So…is a US plane going to have to go up in flames before they do an outright ban of these Samsung phones with the threat of criminal prosecution for those who insist on using/charging them while on board?
There doesn’t really appear to be a way of banning a particular cell phone in airplanes. And, even if the phones are banned, how will the ban be enforced? People will just check them, which is even more dangerous.
>So…is a US plane going to have to go up in
>flames before they do an outright ban of these
>Samsung phones
the story said a spare battery was the battery that ignighted; the Samsung Note7 doesnt have a user replaceable bbatter. So the “spare” battery that fired up had nothing to do with Samsung