Laptop batteries suspect in plane crash Investigators probe possibilityBy Nick Farrell: Tuesday 18 July 2006, 07:47 AIRLINE investigators are getting concerned about the onboard fire hazard of exploding laptop batteries.The US National Transportation Safety Board is looking a strong possibility that an on board fire caused by an exploding laptop battery might have downed a cargo plane on February 8, at at Philadelphia International Airport.Investigators found several computer laptop batteries were on board the plane, and that in some cases portions of the laptop batteries had burned.There have been a number of similar incidents where lithium batteries have caught fire aboard airplanes, it appears.Two months ago a spare laptop battery packed in a bag stored in an overhead bin started emitting smoke. Fortunately the plane had not taken off yet. Shipments of lithium batteries have ignited in 1999 and in 2004, mostly on cargo planes.More here. µ
Laptop batteries on planes are an accident waiting to happen Terror without terroristsBy Paul Hales: Monday 14 August 2006, 14:54 WHILE THE POTENTIAL dangers of lithium ion batteries have long been known, it seems it took the INQUIRER'S publication of those shocking photos of Dell's famously exploding laptop for something to be done about the issue. As we noted before, the possible dangers of laptop computers bursting into flames on an aircraft in the middle of the Atlantic need to be taken into account, as facts hitherto fore buried in bureaucracy begin to demonstrate. As the Wall Street Journal notes today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission now admits documentation on 339 cases of lithium and lithium-ion batteries in portable gizmos, "overheating, emitting smoke and fumes or exploding since 2003." Of perhaps more concern is that fact the Federal Aviation Administration has logged 60 such incidents in aircraft or airports since 1991. During the past two years, six incidents have occurred on aircraft, including five fires plus a overheating torch that "had to be handled with oven mitts". The WSJ notes the case of Lufthansa Flight 435 which on May 15 was sat at Chicago O'Hare International Airport preparing for a nine-hour flight to Munich, when, according to witnesses, smoke began to float from the luggage bin above seat 2A. A smoking case was tossed out of the plane before erupting into flames. Inside, investigators discovered a "charred laptop computer and a six-pack of melted lithium-ion batteries," the Journal notes The owner of the laptop confessed to having bought non-standard batteries on eBay. After a number of scares involving non-rechargable lithium batteries, these were banned from flights by the FAA in 2004. Other incidents that involve rechargeable lithium-ion batteries now most commonly used in laptops have, um, sparked an investigation into their safety, or lack of such. The investigation is on-going. So far, manufacturers have recalled more than two million rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops, portable DVD players and digital cameras, etc., since 2003. These include a total of 300,700 laptop batteries recalled since May 2005. In a bid to allay these fears and others, Dell's upcoming announcement of a battery recall could run into many millions of battery units, we understand. µ
Laptop Blamed For Fire That Caused Crash, Destroyed TruckPOSTED: 4:25 pm EDT September 6, 2006HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- A Florida father said his laptop computer caught his truck on fire and put his daughter's life in danger.David Costello and his daughter were traveling through Hillsborough County in his truck on Monday. Costello said he turned on his Dell laptop computer so his daughter could watch a movie. That's when the computer stated smoking."It started smoking and, at that time I tossed it as far away from her as I could into the back seat," Costello said."He saw it smoking and it just, just got the whole truck on fire," said Kayla Costello.Costello ended up crashing into a sign. He got his daughter out just before the truck went up in flames.Dell Computers said the laptop in question is not the same model that had recently been recalled.
Canon copier recalled in battery scare Tendency to do a Dell laptopBy Nick Farrell: Wednesday 13 September 2006, 06:43JAPAN'S Canon has decided to recall more than 140,000 personal copiers because they could produce smoke or catch fire.The outfit said that it would inspect and replace three compact personal copier models made in Japan between 1987 and 1997 due to a faulty connection involving the power cord. It believes that only 270,000 units are still in use. One caught fire in Japan earlier this year, but there were three cases overseas in 1998. Nice to know they were on the ball.
Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sony to recall notebook batteries too Will it ever end? [No, Ed.]By INQUIRER staff: Friday 29 September 2006, 10:15IT NEVER RAINS but it pours. Hard and fast on the news of a Lenovo-IBM battery recall, it appears that Sony, Toshiba and Fujitsu are readying recalls too.According to nikkei.net, Toshiba and Fujitsu will soon start a recall for lithium ion batteries made by Sony.Sony said on Thursday it will recall batteries in its own notebook machines in conjunction with the US CSPC. According to the wire, as many as one million units will be recalled. Meanwhile the CSPC has put together a handy little guide to notebook batteries, here. Don't put them on your lap. They're not laptops, you know. µ
Dell recalls 100,000 more batteries Will it ever end? [No, Ed.]By Nick Farrell: Friday 29 September 2006, 14:25DELL HAS decided that it needs to widen its battery recall by 100,000 after it discovered that more of its laptops were shipped with Sony's special dodgy exploding variety. The maker of tin said it was increasing the recall from 4.1 million to 4.2 million. This might not sound like much, but we are talking about the entire population of an average city, the size of Slough, being added to the population of New Zealand. µ
Sony knew about exploding batteries a year ago Buried reportBy Nick Farrell: Tuesday 03 October 2006, 07:09 JAPANESE FIRM Sony knew that its devices had faults for nearly a year but did nothing about it, it's claimed.Newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun has discovered that Sony executives were informed about a Dell notebook that caught fire in November last year. It sent its engineers to have a look and discovered that the battery was prone overheating caused by contamination by metal particles during the battery's production process.However, Sony did not bother to look at batteries it had produced for companies other than Dell, on the grounds that no accidents had been reported.The paper claims that if Dell had addressed the faults with its batteries earlier, it could have avoided the major recall. Instead the outfit seems to have stuck its fingers in its ears and gone la la la.
Fujitsu recalls a quarter million Sony batteries More Sony woesBy INQUIRER staff: Wednesday 04 October 2006, 11:46AS ANTICIPATED by the Japanese press last week, Fujitsu is the latest notebook vendor to recall battery packs.The recall is for 287,000 battery packs worldwide. Details of some models are available here. Yesterday HP claimed it would be unaffected by the Sony recall. µ
