Confirming the incident, IndiGo said that ‘a few passengers travelling on 6E-054 flight from Singapore to Chennai noticed the smoke smell in the cabin this morning (September 23, 2016) and immediately alerted the cabin crew on board.’
“The crew quickly identified minor smoke coming from the hat-rack of the seat 23 C. Taking the precautionary measure, the cabin crew on priority relocated all the passengers on other seats, and further observed smoke being emitted from a Samsung Note 2, which was placed in the baggage (of a passenger) in the overhead bin. There was no fire observed but sparks were observed,” the airline said in a statement.
The statement adds that the crew discharged the fire extinguisher which is as per the Standard Operating Procedures prescribed by the aircraft manufacturer, ‘and quickly transferred to the Samsung note 2 into a container filled with water into the lavatory. The aircraft made a normal landing at the Chennai airport, and all passengers were deplaned as per normal procedure.
The DGCA is likely to meet Samsung officials on Monday. “We had called Samsung to discuss the issue on Monday,” said a senior DGCA official. A statement from Samsung is awaited.
The smoke and the Sparks from the Samsung Note 2 has been reported at a time when the Indian aviation regulator has put restrictions on using Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on flights. The Indian regulator’s action was after a growing list of nations that have taken similar steps citing potential fire hazard.
The DGCA, in an order issued on September 9, 2016, had banned passengers from carrying Galaxy 7 in ‘switch on’ mode on flight, or stowing them in any checked in luggage.
the Passenger can, however, carry such phone in ‘switch off’ mode and check cabin baggage, it said in Friday’s order.
The warning followed a global recall of the phones after reports of the devices exploding or catching fire. Samsung investigated the problem and found that the rechargeable batteries inside the phones were at fault.
No comments:
Post a Comment