Samsung said a week ago that it was halting sales of the Note 7 and would recall 2.5 million devices in 10 countries, including South Korea and the US.
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The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday night that because of recent fire reports involving the smartphone, passengers shouldn’t use or charge one or stow one in checked baggage.
Singapore Airlines is already prohibiting the use or charging of the phones in flight, and Australian carrier Qantas said it was requesting that passengers not use them.
It wasn’t immediately clear how major USA airlines would respond to the announcement by the FAA, which has previously warned that fires caused by the type of batteries found in cellphones can be very hard to extinguish aboard planes, CNN reported.
A Delta Air Lines spokesman, Morgan Durrant, said “For now, we are studying this”.
Samsung has since issued a statement explaining the battery flaw, which causes the cell to spontaneously combust.
Nathan Dornacher of St. Petersburg, Florida, was charging his phone in his vehicle on Labor Day when he discovered his Jeep on fire, ABC News reported.
The Federation Aviation Agency said Friday that passengers are strongly advised not to turn on or charge the Note 7 phones while flying. The phone was released August 19. “Passengers have also been advised not to stow them in their checked-in baggage”, the ministry said, a day after U.S. regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a similar warning. But recalled or damaged batteries are forbidden.
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Samsung announced a worldwide recall of the Note last week.
