Two former US safety officials have revealed that Samsung could face an unusual second recall of the Galaxy Note 7 if the Federal Aviation Administration and Consumer Product Safety Commission conclude that the device that caught fire aboard a Southwest Airlines aircraft on Wednesday is, in fact, a replacement model as its owner claims.
“If it’s the fixed phone and it started to smoke in his pocket, I’m going to guess there’ll be another recall,” says Pamela Gilbert, a former executive director of the consumer agency. “That just doesn’t sound right.” The former CPSC agent then went on to add that the agency could have a decision as early as next week as this is “not something you want to leave hanging.”
Nancy Nord, a former chairwoman of the CPSC, revealed that second recalls are extremely uncommon, but she hasn't ruled it out. “Certainly [Samsung] could [issue] another recall, if it appears this is something beyond an aberration,” she said. First, however, the agency needs to determine whether a “remediated phone [is to blame], and if so why [the fire happened.]”
Not too long ago, Samsung announced that there have been more than 92 reports of Galaxy Note 7 batteries overheating in the US alone, with 26 of these cases confirmed to have involved burns. It's currently unclear what the figure is now, but with the flurry of reports that have been flying in recently, it's expected to be significantly larger.
