Owners of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 should take note that the phone batteries seem to be exploding from airline flights. Last week Samsung recalled 2.5 million of the phones over explosions that were occurring while charging, and now airline officials are warning passengers not to pack them in their carry on luggage or charge them on the plane for the same potential reason.
As many as 35 different phones were reported to have overheated since the release of the model, and it seems that the rechargeable lithium batteries are to blame for the issue. Rechargeable lithium batteries have caused issue before in other products like laptops and even cars and planes. The batteries are more likely to overheat than other batteries when they are exposed to high temperatures.
When the batteries start to overheat something called “thermal runaway” occurs where it continues to heat up to the point of explosion, and it’s not always possible to stop the flames with water alone.
Bulk shipments of rechargeable lithium batteries have already been banned from being transported on airplanes to prevent fires, but it seems that individual devices can cause plenty of issues as well.
Samsung has stopped all sales on the phone model and is shipping out new phones with safer batteries to all current owners.
