14 DAY TRIAL // The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catching fire saga came to an end a long time ago, but this doesn’t mean that the South Korean company can fully get over its phones bursting into flames.
Several of its models went through similar incidents in the last few months, and the most recent one was experienced in the middle of a Jet Airways flight.
A Samsung Galaxy J7 started emitting smoke about 15 minutes into the flight and owner Arpita Dhal quickly alerted the crew. The phone, which was placed in the handbag under the seat, was carried alongside two other phones whose brands and models were not revealed.
Fire extinguishers weren’t working
But the more terrifying side of the story for the 120 people on board is that the fire extinguishers inside the aircraft didn’t work, so the crew had to take the phone and threw it in water to stop the fire. The other two phones were also put on a tray of water as a precaution, according to local media.
“It was a mid-air panic. We prayed to god,” Atul, Arpita’s husband, was quoted as saying. “I will complain against Jet Airways after I return home. This is a question of safety of passengers in flights. If there is a major fire or blast what will they do when their fire extinguishers don’t work like this.”
The airline claims the incident was resolved correctly by the crew, but doesn’t say a single word about the fire extinguishers which weren’t working at the time of the fire.
“It was observed on board Jet Airways’ flight 9W 791 Delhi-Indore that smoke was emitting from a guest hand bag. Jet Airways crew immediately took charge of the situation, as also all necessary steps as precautionary measure, and as per the prescribed guidelines,” a spokesperson was quoted as saying.
As usual, Samsung explains that customer safety is a top priority for the company and promises to investigate and determine the cause of the fire. Of course, this is an isolated incident and there’s no sign of a widespread issue affecting other Galaxy J7 units.