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This iPhone 4 started to glow red and smolder with dense fumes in the middle of a flight to Sydney, Australia. Fortunately, a flight attendant stopped it from exploding violently, something that has happened before with other gadgets.
The owner of the self-combusting iPhone wasn’t doing anything extraordinary with it. The iPhone’s battery just started to overheat in the middle of Regional Express’ flight ZL319, going from Lismore to Sydney. According to the airline, the flight attendant extinguished following standard emergency procedures. Nobody was injured.
The phone now is being analysed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. [Australian Aviation via BGR]
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Tbh, what amused me is the prediction of this at the end of the 2006 laptop explosion post:-
“It’s only a matter of time before something like this happens on an airplane.”
http://us.gizmodo.com/182257/dell-laptop-explodes-in-flames
Something dodgy about this. If you look closely at the Apple logo, you can see its the one by that HK guy when Jobs died. I wonder if something on the aftermarket plate caused it? (or if something was buggered in the install resulting in a short)
Good spot! I’ve looked at the image on a couple of other articles and while it does look a little like SJ’s face, it could actually be distortion caused by the cracks in the glass..
It’s Sydney….
Sorry, I must have been REALLY tired when editing this post. Especially because I’m from Australia myself. Ulp.
When I saw it I assumed that it simply hadn’t been seen by you. Get some rest Kat, you’ll need all you strength for next weeks shindig.
Better rest my vocal chords for that dubstep remix singing I’ll be doing, too…
Sometimes I leave my iPhone on charge before leaving the house, I would hope the risk of the phone having exploded in my absence is non existent, if this was to happen to anyone then it would be really bad, Apple need to make sure the issue is dealt with the same as it did with the iPod’s!
I presume you mean ‘Sydney, Australia’? lol
Considering the number of a iDevices that overheat, catch fire or explode for know reasons I’d say little is spontaneous about these things.
But I have noticed a recent trend of human spontaneous combustion in the news over the last few years, I wonder if the common link is iDevices causing this trend.
But on a serious note if I owned an airline and an iPhone caught fire onboard, and risked exploding, putting the lives of every person on board at risk I think that may be a good time to start screwing them for some of those billions they hoard – I care equally if an American corporation or some Middle Eastern dude is sneaking IED’s onto planes I may travel on, it is a concern – imagine dying because some trendy twat is into Angry Birds on a plane, the shame.
PS It is Sydney and not Sidney
I’m not sure that the number of iDevices that have overheated is an especially big number, especially when you consider how many there are, they may suffer from being more “media worthy” since everyone knows what an iPhone is whereas other “brands” are less well known. Overheating and shorting are consequences of the race to make phones thinner. Less room in the phone mean components are tracks have to be closer together making overheating and shorts far more likely. Since Apple has decided not to increase it’s screen size (so far) it has a lot more to pack in then it’s big screen Android and WP7 cousins. Since Blackberrys still run on clockwork they don’t have this issue at all
I hope the airline staff didn’t mistake it for some kind of improvised explosive. That would really suck to have a broken iPhone and be suspected for terrorism on the same day.