Spontaneously combusting iphone on REX flight last Friday?

[Luke SkyToddler]

Red hot, smoking iPhone self-combusts on airliner... | Stuff.co.nz (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/6054703/Red-smoking-iPhone-combusts-on-flight)

If this is for real, any techies care to comment?

My airline is supposed to be replacing the entire in flight library with ipads next month ... don't really rate the whole self-combusting thing in flight though :uhoh:

[Going Boeing]

Qantas had a similar incident about a month ago on an A380 - the iPhone spent the rest of the flight immersed in water. If there are more cases of this, Apple may have a quality control problem in the battery manufacturing process.

[RENURPP]

I recently bought an Iphone 4s and on several occasions it has been very hot to touch, particularly when the battery is very low. Thats an issue I haven't seen with previous models.

It hasn't reoccurred of very recent times, however it appears I had better keep a good eye on it.

[cart_elevator]

I wish mine would spontaneously combust. then I might be able to get a phone with decent reception and battery life :E

[teresa green]

Probably had not paid his phone bill. I wish my mongrel of a thing did the same.:hmm:

[707-338]

The iPhone incident on the QF9 was the result of the phone being crushed as the Skybed was being repositioned from the fully flat position to upright. The phone was charging at the time and had slid down the side of the seat while the pax was sleeping.

While in this case it wasn't the fault of the phone it did show how quickly a lithium battery can turn bad when mishandled/damaged. The cabin crew handled the situation well and the only damage was some slight scorch marks to the side of the seat and a melted headset lead.

[BP2197]

This is quite a common issue with Lithium based batteries. The usual cause is either damage to the battery or over discharge which these types of cells don't like. I would have thought that Apple would have a low voltage cutoff to prevent the latter. Either way, at least these are very low powered cells and less likely to inflict really significant issues other than smoke in the cabin and some heat. CASA have new guidelines for the carriage of lithium batteries on aircraft.

[RobRW]

This is very true, we have the REX media release on the noticeboard in the smoko room at work.

It begins with addressing the problem of having your phone on in flight then goes into a big PR rant for the hostie and what other operations REX have their hands in...

One thing, they never let a marketing opportunity pass them by.