As Samsung prepares to reveal the findings of its investigation into what caused the Galaxy Note 7 overheating problems, one of its other phones has seemingly followed the Note 7‘s explosive example.
A Galaxy S6 reportedly exploded on-board a China Airlines flight CI027 to Taipei (via PhoneArena) mid-flight, with the owner of the phone suffering burns to his hands.
This seems to be an isolated incident, as the S6 was launched in 2015 and there have been no other reports of the handset exploding since its release.
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The flight crew on-board the China Airlines flight managed to stop the overheating handset from causing any major issues to the flight, but the cabin of the plane was said to have filled with smoke.
After using fire extinguishers to put out the fire, the crew were said to have placed the handset in an ice bucket.
As the plane’s cabin is pressurised, the fire could have potentially spread very quickly had the flight crew not reacted so quickly.
Following the incident, the Aviation Safety Council in China has organised an investigation team to look into how the whole thing happened.
Pictures from passengers show the handset smoking and a flight attendant standing over the device on the floor of the cabin.
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The S6 incident follows Samsung’s decision to recall its Note 7 phablet after numerous reports emerged of the phone overheating, and in some cases exploding.
After initially blaming the problem on faulty batteries from its subsidiary, Samsung SDI, the company was forced to admit it was unsure what the cause was, as replacement batteries also began overheating.
Earlier this week, Instrumental’s Anna Shedletsky fingered an ‘overly aggressive design’ as the reason for the problems, saying “the design can compress the battery even during normal operation.”
Samsung is expected to reveal the findings of its own investigation this month, so we should have an official explanation soon.
For now, S6 owners shouldn’t have anything to worry about, as, again, the latest explosion seems to have been an isolated incident.
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Let us know what you think of this development in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
