We saw it coming and went ahead and wrote about it in this article. The axe seems to be falling on Samsung sooner rather than later. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday, 8th September, 2016 strongly advised flyers to neither use nor charge a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 while on a plane. On the light side, the agency did not actually ban the transport of the devices but the FAA’s advisory may mean a ban is on the way.
The following is the statement by FAA;
“In light of recent incidents and concerns raised by Samsung about its Galaxy Note 7 devices, the Federal Aviation Administration strongly advises passengers not to turn on or charge these devices on board aircraft and not to stow them in any checked baggage.”
This comes in the wake of Samsung admitting to a battery flaw in their just released Galaxy Note 7 devices, which led to fire or explosions. Samsung was not taking any more chances with the safety of their customers after 35 such incidents were reported thus prompting them to issue a recall on all Galaxy Note 7 devices globally.
As a practical matter, a flight ban could be tough to enforce. This is so because telling a Galaxy Note 7 from a Galaxy Note 5 or a Galaxy S7 would be impractical to add to the long list of duties for flight crews or security screeners. To add to this, on the other hand, Samsung expects to have replacement devices out in a week or so that would look indistinguishable from those that could have faulty batteries.
To add salt to injury, three airlines in Australia, Qantas, its budget arm Jetstar, and Virgin Australia, are now requesting passengers to abstain from charging or even powering on their Galaxy Note 7’s while on board of their planes.
The following is a statement sent to Reuters from a Qantas representative;
“Following Samsung Australia’s recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 personal electronic device we are requesting that passengers who own them do not switch on or charge them in flight.”
It seems the bad publicity for Samsung just keeps pouring in.