iPhone XR caught fire after getting trapped in airline passenger's seat
- Reference: 1618935606
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/20/iphone_xr_inflight_fire_british_airways/
- Source link:
The Club World passenger, flying from Miami to Heathrow, had raised her seat from its lie-flat bed position back to the conventional one while a stewardess rearranged her bedding.
[1]
Yet on removing the blankets the stewardess "smelt a strong odour" of sulphur. This wasn't caused by the in-flight curry, either: a charger cable led "down the side of the seat." Even as she called the purser over, the stewardess heard a "hissing" sound and saw an "orange glow" as a plume of thick smoke began issuing from the seat.
The quick-thinking purser pulled back the seat padding to reveal "a red mobile phone trapped in the seat mechanism". She doused it with a fire extinguisher as one colleague contacted the flight deck and another fetched a bucket of water from the galley.
[2]
[3]
Click to enlarge
Up in the cockpit the pilots had noticed the sulphurous pong and, after hearing from the cabin crew, they called air traffic control to report a potential in-flight fire. Controllers ordered the airport fire brigade to meet the Boeing as it landed, as a safety precaution. Luckily the landing was uneventful despite a cabin crew member having to stand by the offending iPhone with a second fire extinguisher for the rest of the flight, in case it reignited.
FAA issues lithium battery warning [4]READ MORE
The Jesus Mobe's immolation was noted by Britain's Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), which noted the in-air fire in a report
[5]PDF
published today. The unlucky airliner was G-ZBKF, delivered to BA in 2016.Investigators found that BA's ops manual had appropriate warnings about mobile phones, tablets and their lithium-ion batteries, with the document warning of “structural deformation caused by crushed, physically or electrically abused lithium batteries” posing a fire hazard, as happened in this October 2020 incident.
BA passengers, found the AAIB, are told not to move their seats and to call a steward if they do lose a device down the side of one, though the AAIB report stopped short of finding that the passenger here knew her phone had fallen into her seat’s innards.
Civil Aviation Authority records showed 166 previous instances of phones being trapped in airliner seats over the past five years alone, with 42 of those resulting in smoke or fire.
Apple, as is its wont, didn't respond to The Register ’s request for comment. The firm is currently fending off [6]lawsuits over device battery fires .
Back in 2013 lithium battery fires were [7]not unknown on Boeing 787s , although in those cases it was because the aircraft's own accumulators were bursting into flames. Since then the problems have been fixed, though the hazard posed by mobile phones still exists.
[8]
In 2015 the US Federal Aviation Administration [9]published a warning to airline passengers about the dangers of lithium batteries. Meanwhile, the EU Aviation Safety Authority and Britain's CAA have called for airline seat designers to specifically address the problem of trapped phones getting crushed in adjustable seat mechanisms. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
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[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/04/20/burntiphone.png
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2015/10/14/faa_lithium_battery_warning/
[5] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6075525b8fa8f57358f07e07/Boeing_787-9_G-ZBKF.pdf
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/24/apple_sued_over_fire/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/17/faa_grounds_boeing_787_batteries/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YH9O92v@yXVcBJ37R3oiqAAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2015/10/14/faa_lithium_battery_warning/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Was the passenger
You're folding it wrong
If you're seeking ever higher energy density
Re: If you're seeking ever higher energy density
Human fat has an astonishingly high energy density - better than many explosives. But, fortunately, it doesn't end to go Bang!
Re: If you're seeking ever higher energy density
So a future smartphone "charger" might allow you to suck fat out of your belly to power it up? File your patents now!
Re: If you're seeking ever higher energy density
Depends on how processed it becomes.
The first rule about Fight Club...
Shocking article. I didn't know that aeroplanes were still flying.
How else...?
did the Indian variant of Covid-19 get here then? By Elephant...?
Clumsy while sleeping
"... after a clumsy passenger dropped it down the side of her seat. The Club World passenger, flying from Miami to Heathrow, had raised her seat from its lie-flat bed position back to the conventional one while a stewardess rearranged her bedding."
Clumsy while sleeping, I am often guilty of that. Things not to do while falling asleep.
* Wear glasses (have suffered bent frames from this).
* Prop laptop on knees.
* Drink tea.
Have done all of the above, sometimes all at the same time. The problem is the "shouldn't do this" execution path is avoided in favor of the "power down for sleep *now*" instruction.
It's quite likely the phone was fine right up until the flight attendant change the seat position.
Re: Clumsy while sleeping
Yeah.. it's things like this why I don't sleep on aeroplanes.
Pre-covid I had a nice 19 hour flight from England to Japan, and ofc, the same back to England (with a brief stop in Dubai, around 1 hr or so both ways).
Me being me, stayed awake the whole time with no sleep for both flights because on a flight there's two things I don't trust:
1) Other passengers, who are these people sat next to you? What do you know about them? When you're flying alone like I do, the answer is "I don't know them". - So I don't want to lose my phone or other possessions while asleep... as such no sleep for me... just use my phone until I land (Yes.. I buy the in flight internet access, with VPN active ofc).
2) If you do drop something while asleep - By the time you notice it could be too late to recover it.
Almost every flight I've been on there's been another passenger saying "Hey, I lost my phone where is it?!" after waking.. usually it's found on the floor or under a seat.. but still, if you didn't check? Just thought it's in your bag?
And ofc and by the time feeding time comes I want my damn food because I'm hungry.. usually by feeding time I'm light headed and feeling faint on a long flight (food always fixes that)... so unlike other passengers who sleep right through it then complain there's no food, I need my food.
So imo, it's better to simply not sleep on aeroplanes, you get all the food and keep your stuff.
Oh, and last tip.. only drink the bottled water on an aircraft, about half way through the flight switch to juices... You don't want to know why...
Re: Clumsy while sleeping
Sorry you are so distrustful of people. I've never had anything stolen from me on a plane and I've slept on lots of long-hauls. Sounds like you could do with some cognitive behavioral therapy to address what sounds like an irrational fear.
If they can afford to fly that far internationally they are probably not after your stuff.
Re: Clumsy while sleeping
The original poster is not wrong. Several cases of inflight theft have occurred and been reported on as far back as 2011 (money and valuables have both 'been disappeared' on flights and yes, it affects not only economy, but business and first too). Unfortunately I am of the same opinion that locking things up is a good idea. I tend to wear a jacket with pockets on a plane anyway and will zip my stuff into them (or stick the items in my trouser/trackie pockets).
Re: Clumsy while sleeping
The only problem I see would be being hostile to your seat neighbors. Always cautious is really OK.
Just an iPhone . ..
Thank Elon* it wasn't a Tesla given that horrendous fire in Texas.
Elon is the new God. Old God, take a back seat in Elon's sort-of-but-not-really self-driving car.
Baked Apples
They are cooking them wrong if they smell of sulphur, mine always smell of cinnamon.
So batteries are fragile.
Going back to the recent Telsa crash - could it be the speed at impact wasn't actually that high, but it was just enough to dent the battery and trigger a fire? That the driver then climbed over to the passenger seat by couldn't open the door or window in time before being overcome by fumes and flames?
It "could be" lots of things. We don't know, there is no official report as yet.
Air New Zealand usually includes a warning in their pre-flight safety videos like: if you lose your phone in your seat, don't try to pull it out, call for a crew member to help you. So this is why.
Was the passenger
in the hot seat?