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US Issues Emergency Ban On Flying With Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Offenders May Face Criminal Prosecution (transportation.gov)

Posted by msmash on from the phone-on-fire dept.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone will be banned from aircraft in the United States starting at noon EDT (1600 GMT) under an emergency order, regulators said on Friday. Among other penalties, those who attempt to circumvent the ban could be subjected to criminal prosecutions, the regulators added. Quartz reports: On Friday (Oct. 14), US Department of Transportation announced that passengers would no longer be able to bring the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 onto any flight in the United States. There have been nearly 100 reported cases of the phones catching on fire and spewing noxious black smoke, an undesired situation in an airplane's enclosed cabin. "Individuals who own or possess a Samsung Galaxy Note7 device may not transport the device on their person, in carry-on baggage, or in checked baggage on flights to, from, or within the United States," the US DOT statement said. Any travelers who violate the ban could be subject to criminal prosecution and fines. Samsung is expected to see a $5.3 billion loss in profits from the entire fiasco, mainly the cost of recalling, stopping production, and destroying phones.Samsung said it will send a text message to all Note 7 users to let them know about this ban.

4 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Now, if only... by MikeMo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Citation needed.

  2. Re:Now, if only... by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Insightful

    touch disease doesn't end with an explosion and fire.

  3. Wait, what? by tsqr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Samsung said it will send a text message to all Note 7 users to let them know about this ban.

    Well, that should be effective, seeing as how Samsung has told all Note 7 users to power off their phones.

    This is reminiscent of IT departments that send out emails to users to tell them that the mail server is down.

    1. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Makes perfect sense to me.....

      Since there are two groups of people out there at this moment.

      Group A)
      People that have discontinued use of or exchanged their effected phones. For those people the text doesn't mean anything but they also won't be receiving it as noted they are no longer using and or in possession of the effected hardware.

      And then you have Group B)
      People who are still using the effected phones in spite of the recall. Those people would be effected by the ban and those people will receive the text notifying them of it.

      So it works exactly as intended to reach all of those who need to be reached.