Samsung Note 7 ban enforced on Australia's four major airlines

The recalled Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will be banned from Qantas and Virgin Australia flights from Sunday because of the smartphone's potential fire risk.

An exploded Samsung Galaxy Note 7

An exploded Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Source: Ariel Gonzalez/YouTube

Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Austraila and Tiger have banned Samsung Galaxy Note 7 from all flights due to potential fire risk.

The ban will come into effect on Sunday, with the four airlines changing their response to the troubled smartphone shortly after the US introduced a blanket ban on the device in the air.

The battery of the Galaxy Note 7 has been known to overheat and catch fire, with Samsung issuing a recall for about 2.5 million phones.

Qantas, which owns Jetstar, and Virgin Australia, which owns Tiger, both decided on Saturday to ban the device completely from flights.

"The ban applies to devices being carried on to the aircraft, in carry-on baggage as well as check-in luggage," Qantas said in a statement.

Initially, the device had been allowed if it had been turned off and not charged during the flight.

"The use of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices is currently prohibited on all Virgin Australia and Tigerair Australia flights and the complete ban announced today is an additional safety measure," Virgin Australia said.

The US Department of Transportation issued an emergency order to ban the Galaxy Note 7 on all flights to and from the country on Friday.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is monitoring the situation in Australia but hasn't enforced a blanket ban.

"If we need to take further action we will but at this stage we haven't moved to actually ban them," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson told AAP.

Samsung announced on Tuesday it was halting production of the Note 7 after some updated versions of the phones continued to overheat.


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Source: AAP


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