Reports of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 issues grow

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was supposed to be the next jewel in the South Korean company's line of Android smartphones, one touted for its bigger battery that could power the phone for an impressive nine hours.

The entire phone was - as the company advertised - "designed to be a key that opens the door to new experiences on the go."

Since its Aug. 19 release, the Note 7 has indeed become known for all of the above, though not likely in the way Samsung had hoped.

On Thursday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of the new Samsung phones, saying defective Note 7 batteries had been linked to "26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage, including fires in cars and a garage."

The recall followed numerous recent reports, including one last Tuesday, when Port St. Lucie police officers responded to a car on fire in a residential neighborhood in the south Florida beach city. There, they found a vehicle "fully engulfed in flames."

The driver, unharmed, told police he had been charging his Samsung 7 phone when it burst into flames.

"[The] suggestion that the phone caused the fire has not been confirmed at this time as the Fire Marshall is continuing their investigation into the cause of the fire," the Port St. Lucie Police Department said in a statement.

In what is believed to be the first Note 7-related lawsuit, a Florida man filed a claim against Samsung last Friday, alleging his Galaxy Note 7 exploded and caused him severe burns on his right thigh and left thumb, Reuters reported.

In the lawsuit, Jonathan Strobel claimed that his Note 7 exploded in his front pants pocket while he was at a Costco on Sept. 9. The explosion was intense enough to burn through his pants and also severely burn his left thumb when he reached in to try to remove the phone, Reuters reported.

"He has a deep second-degree burn, roughly the size of the phone, on his right thigh," Strobel's lawyer Keith Pierro told Reuters.

Such reports have continued to plague Samsung, which first issued a voluntary recall of its Galaxy Note 7 phones due to a "battery issue" on Sept. 2, offering to replace customers who had bought the devices with new ones. The lithium-ion batteries in the phones could overheat and pose a safety risk, the company said after it had received a few dozen reports of Note 7 batteries catching on fire.

"To date (as of September 1) there have been 35 cases that have been reported globally and we are currently conducting a thorough inspection with our suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market," the company said in a statement. "However, because our customers' safety is an absolute priority at Samsung, we have stopped sales of the Galaxy Note7."

The Post reported that, almost two weeks after Samsung's voluntary recall began, most owners of the phone continued to use it, although new sales dropped off, according to mobile analytics firm Apteligent.

On Sept. 15, U.S. safety regulators ordered a nationwide recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and Samsung updated its recall with increased urgency.

"Since the affected devices can overheat and pose a safety risk, if you own a Galaxy Note7, it is extremely important to stop using your device, power it down and immediately exchange it using our U.S. Note7 Exchange Program," the company said in another statement.

Issues with the Note 7 battery have become so known that they have been singled out in some airline boarding announcements.

Before Delta flight 2557 took off from Norfolk to Atlanta early Friday morning, flight attendants advised passengers to place their phones in airplane mode. Those who had the Galaxy Note 7s, however, were advised to power them down completely.

"They made a specific point to mention that phone, and I thought that was really interesting," Robyn Sidersky, a passenger on the flight, told The Washington Post. "I did know the issues going on so it made sense."

Shortly after takeoff, Sidersky, who was sitting in row 35, said she heard a person screaming "Fire!" and saw smoke emanating from across the aisle in row 34. Soon, flight attendants evacuated about 20 passengers seated around the row and then used a fire extinguisher to douse the flames.

"It was really scary," said Sidersky, a reporter with the Virginian-Pilot. "I think that was some people's first thought when there was smoke was [the engines] were on fire."

About 20 minutes later, passengers were told that the culprit was a spare lithium-ion battery apparently wedged between the window and middle seats, she said.

The airline confirmed that the incident took place on board its flight yesterday.

"During ascent from Norfolk International Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the flight attendants of Delta flight 2557 observed smoke in the rear portion of the aircraft. They acted quickly to immediately dissipate the smoke," Delta spokesman Brian Kruse said in a statement. "It quickly became evident that the source of the smoke was from a spare battery not affixed to a device."

Kruse said the battery "did not appear" to be one from the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 but said an investigation was ongoing to determine the source and type of battery involved.

The flight, which had 143 passengers and five crew members on board, landed safely in Atlanta, Kruse said. As a goodwill gesture, Delta gave passengers aboard the flight 15,000 frequent-flier miles or a $150 travel voucher.

No one on board ever claimed the battery as his or her own, Sidersky said.

"It's unclear if it was someone who was on the plane or if it was just left between the seats," she said. "People were kind of angry about that."

One request was clear after the on-board battery fire, though: Flight attendants immediately asked all passengers to power down their phones, regardless of whether it was a Samsung or not. From what Sidersky could observe, everyone complied.

"Everybody around us was like, man, turn your phone off," she said.