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A Samsung Note 7 Phone Actually Exploded on an Airplane

The Southwest flight hadn't taken off yet, thankfully.
Photo via Flickr user Bill Abbott

A Southwest flight was canceled Wednesday morning after a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone exploded and started to fill the plane with smoke during boarding, USA Today reports.

Brian Green was reportedly powering down his Samsung phone while boarding in Louisville when the Note 7 made a popping noise and started smoking. Green yanked the phone out of his pocket and threw it on to the ground while flight attendants evacuated the 75 people onboard.

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The Federal Aviation Administration strongly advises passengers to power down their Galaxy Note 7s and not charge them while the plane is in-flight, due to reports that its lithium batteries have been causing the phone to explode and start fires—two things you don't particularly want while on an airplane.

By mid-September, Samsung reportedly received 92 claims of Galaxy Note 7 batteries overheating, 26 instances of burns, and 55 reports of property damage. The company recalled 1 million Galaxy Note 7s it sold before September 15 and offered to replace them with an safer, updated model.

However, according to Brian Green's wife, Sarah, the defective Note 7 onboard the Southwest flight was one that her husband had replaced after the massive recall. "I would love to know why the replacement phone is doing what the other one was doing," she told the the Courier-Journal of Louisville.

Samsung is reportedly looking into the incident, saying in a statement, "We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause."

Read: An Exploding Smartphone Probably Destroyed This Guy's Jeep