Spare Electronics Battery Extinguished Aboard Delta Flight
September 16 2016 - 11:50AM
Dow Jones News
A spare electronics battery aboard a commercial flight started
smoking and was extinguished by flight attendants Friday morning,
Delta Air Lines Inc. said, again prompting concerns over batteries'
vulnerabilities on flights.
The incident comes amid a recall of Samsung Electronics Co.
Galaxy Note 7 smartphones due to battery fires. That device doesn't
have a removable battery, so it likely wasn't related to Friday's
incident. A Samsung spokesperson said the company has "received no
information to indicate that this is related to a Samsung
device."
Friday morning, flight attendants aboard a 5:12 a.m. ET flight
to Atlanta observed smoke in the rear of the aircraft and "acted
quickly to immediately dissipate the smoke," Delta said. The source
of the smoke was from a "spare battery not affixed to a device" and
the company said it was working to determine the source and type of
the battery.
Delta Flight 2557 carried 143 customers and five crew members
from Norfolk, Va., to Atlanta as planned. The Virginian-Pilot first
reported news of the incident Friday morning.
Lithium-ion batteries power many of today's mobile electronic
devices and they have been known to catch fire or explode. The FAA
said they have recorded 171 smoke, fire or explosion incidents
involving batteries aboard aircrafts from 1991 to January of this
year, including those used on laptops, electronic cigarettes,
smartphones and USB battery packs.
Last week, the FAA said the Galaxy Note 7 was a potential
airborne fire hazard and urged passengers to avoid using the
devices entirely on board airliners, and to not to turn on, charge
or stow the devices in checked luggage.
Earlier this year, the aviation arm of the United Nations banned
all cargo shipments of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries from the
bellies of passenger airliners until at least 2018.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said earlier this year
that typical fire-suppression systems on jetliners using halon gas
are "incapable of preventing" explosions caused by lithium
batteries held in cargo.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 16, 2016 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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