It was reported just yesterday that a safe Galaxy Note 7 suffered the same fate as many of its unsafe siblings have before it onboard an airplane. It was a replacement unit that the owner had obtained from AT&T once Samsung started supplying safe inventory to the United States after confirming the recall. It was the same story we've all seen many times now, the battery exploded and the phone caught fire. Fortunately, the plane was still at the gate so all passengers were evacuated through the main cabin door and no injuries were reported.
This is an incredibly alarming development, one which could have serious repercussions for Samsung. The company has reiterated multiple times that replacement Galaxy Note 7 units have safe batteries that don't suffer the same battery cell defect as the initial units. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission worked with Samsung on the Galaxy Note 7 recall and it's also going to investigate this latest report. “CPSC is moving expeditiously to investigate this incident,” said CPSC chairman Elliott F. Kaye.
He added that the federal agency's staff have already reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration and Samsung to gather facts about this incident and they will also get in touch with the owner of the device. The chairman reiterated his call that consumers who are still in the possession of a recalled Galaxy Note 7 should power down their devices immediately and obtain a replacement from Samsung. “Consumers should know that one of the remedies is a refund,” he added.
Samsung's only response so far has been that since it's unable to retrieve the device it can't confirm where this incident involves the new Galaxy Note 7. It's working with the authorities and Southwest Airlines to recover the device and investigate the cause of this incident.
