Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

iPhone Auto-Combusts On Australian Airplane

Posted by timothy on from the shield-your-iballs dept.

First time accepted submitter thegreymonkey writes "Last Friday, an iPhone caught fire on flight ZL319 operating from Lismore to Sydney. This incident is under investigation from Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). This accident might be related to the iPhone battery again." Whether it "caught fire" may be a matter of semantics; as reported in the above linked story and by Network World (hat tip to reader alphadogg), though, the iPhone "started glowing red and emitting dense smoke."

6 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Wait till the TSA hears about this by Arancaytar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Mobile phones will be prohibited on flights.

    (But there are drawbacks as well; think laptops with lithium-ion batteries.)

  2. Amazing! by spinkham · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Energetic chemistry is energetic.

    Go find some RC enthusiasts and ask them if they've seen LiPos burn. There's a good chance they have.

    That's why we charge our batteries in a lipo bag or other fireproof container.

    Of course, RC batteries are abused much more than those in phones, but it's highly non-surprising that occasionally one lights on fire.

    --
    Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
  3. For one battery that goes, billions are just fine by Jack+Malmostoso · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Between this, the Volt battery going up in flames and on a smaller scale the Belgian Post e-bikes catching fire, I am very worried about the fast deployment of Li-ion batteries in many fields.
    I am a researcher in Li-ion batteries, and I know how dangerous those little buggers can be, but also how many efforts are done to make them safer. However, you can't take bad manufacturing out of the equation, and you should always ask yourself why a no-name chinese battery costs 1/3 of the original battery.

    It would be nice to know if the phone was ever dropped, or its battery replaced at any point, or if a non-standard charger was used.

  4. Car DVD PLayer by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Coincidentally yesterday I was driving while the kids watched movies on DVD players. Then Bang a huge explosions and plastic and metal go flying. The cigarette lighter power adapters conditioning electronics had exploded. I didn't drive off the road but could have. It looks like the culprit was a kink in the cord, perhaps from getting caught in a door at some point, causing a short. The violence of the explosion was surprising both literally and figuratively. You just don't realize how explosive your consumer electronics can be when they go bad.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Car DVD PLayer by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I just checked the fuses on the car socket and suprisingly they are intact. The conditioner itself (inductor and caps) did not have a fuse. I can't actually figure out which element exploded: the whole case is town apart and the PC board shattered but all the caps look fine. it's the wires and springs that look cooked. Also it did not sound like a firecracker, it was more of a concussive sound. Our first thought was we had sideswiped an elk or someone had shot the window.

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  5. Re:For one battery that goes, billions are just fi by mr1911 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Exactly what is the difference between a no-name Chinese battery, and a named Chinese battery, besides cost?

    The name, obviously.

    --
    This post comes with a double-your-money-back guarantee!
    Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.