A replacement Galaxy Note7 allegedly catches fire in the US

Samsung is currently halfway through with its Galaxy Note7 recall exercise by offering customers one to one exchange worldwide. As we wait for Samsung to resume sales of its latest flagship, a new incident was reported involving its brand new replacement unit.

According to The Verge, a Southwest Airlines flight 994 had to be evacuated because a Galaxy Note7 had started smoking. Fortunately, the plane was still at the gate and no injuries were reported.

The affected Note7 belonged to Brian Green who had picked up a replacement Note7 from AT&T on 21st September. He had shown photographs to The Verge including his new Galaxy Note7 box which had the square box marking on the label. He added that his unit came with a green battery icon, which indicated that the phone is brand new.

As replacements for the Galaxy Note7 are still on-going, airlines are still advising all passengers to switch off their Note7 and refrain from charging on all flights. Green added that he had powered down his device and placed it in his pocket and that’s when it started emitting thick grey-green smoke. He also shared that his Note7 had about 80% charge and he only used wireless charging since he picked it up.

The Verge had obtained his device serial number ending with 8296 and it was deemed unaffected when they ran a check on Samsung’s recall site. They have also reached out to Samsung which had issued the following statement:

Until we are able to retrieve the device, we cannot confirm that this incident involves the new Note7. We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause. Once we have examined the device we will have more information to share.

Until there’s further confirmation from Samsung and the authorities, existing Galaxy Note7 owners are still urged to swap their units if they haven’t already. The current recall is estimated to cost Samsung billions and they had suspended sales of their latest flagship until further notice in the interest of customer safety.

Samsung Malaysia had already started its one to one replacement exercise last week. In case you didn’t know, they will still replace your unit even if you lose some accessories or if the device had suffered some minor damages. Hopefully, this incident is an isolated one as Samsung can’t afford another crisis after this recall exercise.

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