The photo of a badly burned Apple iPhone that circulated after the phone caught fire during a Regional Express flight has raised important questions about lithium-ion battery safety among a wide aviation audience. The incident occurred after the Regional Express Saab 340B landed in Sydney, Australia, on Nov. 25, 2011, according to the airline, “when a passenger’s mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow.” Although the airline didn’t identify the specific procedures the flight attendant used to contain the smoking battery, the crew “carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully.”
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) provided more information, noting that the flight attendant used a fire extinguisher to cool the phone. But interestingly, this appears to be the only case in Australian aviation of a lithium-ion-powered device spontaneously combusting. According to the ATSB, “There is no previous record in the ATSB’s databases of spontaneous self-ignition involving smartphones or other portable electronic devices on an aircraft in Australia. However, the ATSB is keen to fully understand the nature of this event given the increasing and widespread carriage and use of such technology on passenger-transport vehicles.”
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