Things just keep getting worse and worse for Samsung.
After weeks of investigating cases of Galaxy Note7 phones catching on fire, destroying people’s cars, and even injuring people, Samsung and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued an official recall for 1 million of the phones sold in the U. S.
As per the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), affected Note7 phones with defective batteries must be turned off and can’t be used during flights. Many public transportation agencies like New York City’s MTA have also urged riders not to use the Note7.
And then just as a safe replacement Note7 shipments started arriving on Wednesday and Samsung announced about 500,000 phones of the 1 million recalled in the U.s. had been exchanged, a Galaxy Note 2 catches on fire during an IndieGo flight from Singapore to Chennai.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Samsung are currently investigating why the phone caught on fire in the first place.
“We are in touch with the relevant authorities to gather more information, and are looking into the matter,” a spokesperson from Samsung India said in an emailed statement to Mashable India.
A Samsung spokesperson provided the following statement to Mashable over email: "We have been informed about an incident in India involving a Note 2, which uses a replaceable battery and was released in 2012. We are in touch with local authorities to gather more information and investigate whether there were any external factors involved."
Following the incident, the DGCA has reportedly advised flyers to “exercise caution while flying with the Samsung Note devices,” according to spokesperson who spoke to The India Times. “They should either keep these devices switched off or not travel with them.”
The last thing Samsung needs is another disaster that paints the company in more bad light.
Note (excuse the pun) the wording and how it urges against using essentially all the Samsung Galaxy Note phones during flights. That includes any Note produced since the original device launched in 2011.
It’s basically a declaration that SAMSUNG PHONES ARE DANGEROUS.
Talk about terrible timing.
The last thing Samsung needs is another disaster that paints the company in a worse light. It’s especially tough at a time when the company’s doing everything it can to prevent further tarnishing of its brand. It’s also trying to reassure consumers that it has the Note7 situation under control and that new devices are safe to use.
What Samsung doesn’t need right now is people scrutinizing the quality of all of the phones it produces.
But alas, you can’t control public perception. People are going to point fingers — even if the Note 2 incident is pure coincidence — at Samsung and demand answers.
And that’s what sucks the most for Samsung. The Note7 issue may blow over quickly if it’s able to successfully recall even 95 percent of the defective phones, but the fire damage will probably take a lot longer to repair.
Consumers, as loyal as some of us are, really aren’t that loyal. We vote with our money and if a company can’t assure that its products are safe to use, we’ll leave in a heartbeat. Trust is not something easy to regain after major disasters.
Still, if you’re a Samsung Galaxy Note user, I wouldn’t worry at all.
While we won’t know the real cause of the Note 2 incident until the official investigations are completed, it seems highly unlikely the fire is related to the Note7 defects, which prompted the global recall.
As eagle-eyed techies know, the Note 2 was released in 2012 and Samsung no longer sells the phone. And based on the image of the damaged phone that was made public, it looks like the removable battery expanded, which caused it to catch on fire.
The cause could very likely be a third-party battery and not an official one. While some third-party batteries meet very strict quality control requirements, there are many that don’t and those are the ones that are more likely to catch on fire.
Scary as a phone catching on fire the on a flight is, it’s happened before. Last year, an iPhone 6 inexplicably burst into flames aboard a flight going to Hawaii. And in 2014, there were two reported cases of iPhones catching on fire in people’s pockets. Do a Google search and you’ll find many more that happen every year.
It’s unfortunate, but like I said earlier after the Note7 explosions started rolling in: the Any phone could explode. There’s no such thing as an explosion-proof phone.
In fact, any device with a battery could potentially explode or catch on fire. Companies do their best to create controllers that monitor and regulate a battery to prevent it from overcharging and overheating, but defective batteries can happen (as was the case with the Note7) and people can (and do) push their phones beyond their advertised limits.
Generally, most phones go through their lifespans should without any issues. If you’re using an old Note or Samsung phone with removable batteries, we highly recommend using the official batteries and not cheap knockoffs; the lower prices are tempting, but not worth the potential risk and injury.
It’s just really, really too bad for poor Samsung. The company just can’t catch a break.
A Samsung Note 2 led to a sparks and smoke in an IndiGo flight flying between Singapore and Chennai on Friday morning, said a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official. 
