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

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.

12 of 103 comments (clear)

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

    Citation needed.

  2. Re:Now, if only... by NatasRevol · · Score: 2

    Two phones, with Chinese chargers, does not make for a 'history'.

    --
    There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
  3. Re:Now, if only... by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

  4. Re:i wondering by war4peace · · Score: 2, Informative

    The ban on carrying phones in checked bags is in TFS. I expected the good ol' Slashdotter to not read TFA but really, not even TFS properly?

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  5. Re:You know... by war4peace · · Score: 2

    Um, no.
    if the battery is at fault, you would have to leave it at flight origin and buy a new one at destination. Not the best choice, is it?

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  6. Re:Now, if only... by Overzeetop · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't take his word for it

    http://gizmodo.com/an-iphone-i...
    http://www.cultofmac.com/29186...
    http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/...
    https://www.cnet.com/news/ipho...
    http://www.pcr-online.biz/news...
    https://9to5mac.com/2014/02/22...
    http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/02/...
    http://bgr.com/2016/10/03/ipho...
    http://bgr.com/2016/09/29/ipho...
    http://bgr.com/2016/09/30/ipho...
    http://bgr.com/2016/10/03/ipho...

    And those are just the first two pages of Google links. It's not just Apple - all phones do this. All phones with lithium batteries have a chance of entering thermal runaway. It's inherent in the materials. That said, the Note 7 was close to two orders of magnitude above what a consumer device really should be in terms of spontaneous combustion. Still low probability, but too high for the disruptive nature of and heat generating device on an operating aircraft.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  7. 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.

  8. They should restrict all cell phones by mysidia · · Score: 2

    And just establish a rule going forward, because SamSung is just the latest $flavor_of_the_year issue with lithium batteries.

    Example: To bring any cell phone Or Non-TSA-certified laptop or electronic device aboard any plane, you must remove the battery and place the battery in a
    poly container which you will purchase before security, and the gate attendant will seal and lock before you can board
    the plane, where the battery will remain for the duration of the flight.

    Any cell phone with a Non-removable Lithium-polymer or Lithium-ION battery may not be brought on-board;
    for $100 you may purchase a larger sealed fireproof, smokeproof container to put the phone in which may then go into checked luggage, if it's not a Samsung Galaxy 7.

  9. Re:Now, if only... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Informative

    So, having gone through your links in more detail than you apparently did, it looks like you posted some dupes (#3 is a dupe report of #1 and #11 is the exact same link as #8), fell victim to a clickbait headline (#10 "blew up" in the sense that the iPhone bulged, not that it caught fire), and failed to account for incidents that were likely caused by trauma done to the device prior to any fireworks (as was the case for #4 and #7-9, all of which mention the user doing something that likely damaged the device).

    That leaves us with four distinct incidents that don't have an immediate explanation (#1, 2, 5, and 6).
     
    ...since 2011.
     
    ...no two of which were for the same iPhone model.

    That's about as close to a textbook example for "isolated incident" as you can get, given the tens of millions of iPhones sold during that time and that are currently in use worldwide. We expect to see a handful of isolated fires, given that thermal runaway events are a known issue with LiOn devices, but in a well-designed device, they should occur infrequently enough for them to not be a major concern, and that's exactly what we see from the examples you cited.

  10. Re:Now, if only... by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

    That's like complaining that the government is being unfair because it was quick to crack down on the Pinto but has been slow to crack down on the Model S.

    Never mind that the situations are totally different. Sure, we can point to cases of both catching fire, but in one case it was due to a major design flaw, while in the other it's been primarily the result of extraordinary circumstances. In no way are the situations similar or deserving of similar treatment. Likewise with these phones. Samsung apologists keep trying to suggest that the media/government/others are playing favorites, rather than accepting the fact that the device is demonstrably unsafe for some reason we don't yet know, and that the incident rate for these thermal runaway events far exceeds what we'd expect for a LiOn device, whereas the iPhone's incident rate has so far fallen in line with industry and regulatory expectations.

    As for touch disease, sure, it needs investigating, but mentioning it in this conversation is like bringing up the zit on your conversation partner's face when they point out that you urgently need to go to the hospital.

  11. Banned .... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... from 787s.

    Oh, the irony!

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.