Spare Electronics Battery Extinguished Aboard Delta Flight

By Austen Hufford 

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2016 11:25 ET (15:25 GMT)

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