iPhone blazes as Oz plane touches down

An iPhone left in the overhead locker of a Regional Express flight from Lismore to Sydney in Australia caught fire creating an emergency situation in the cabin. According to a report from the airline there was no open fire, but lots of smoke and red glowing going on. The over-excitable iPhone went into meltdown on landing, and cabin crew rushed to extinguish the inferno in a teacup.

From the image supplied by the airline, the phone is an iPhone 4. It’s been handed over to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for analysis. Regional Express operates Saab 340 twin-engine turboprops carrying 30-odd passengers.

This is not the first iDevice going off pop – in 2009 a French teenager was injured when his girlfriend’s iPhone exploded, while a TV station in Seattle trawled Consumer Product Commission documents to find another 15 self-immolating iPod and iPhone devices. Apple also issued a recall notice recently for first generation iPod nanos.

No reason to panic, though… Apple has shipped 95-million iPhone units (according to Digitimes), so you can expect a couple of mishaps, lithium ion batteries being what they are. Just ask Sony.

But if your device starts getting strangely and excessively hot, removing the battery immediately and taking it to get checked out by a service agent is always a good plan.