Transportation department bans all Samsung Note 7s from airplane

By Kyle Wiggers

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Editors’ Note: Under no circumstance do we recommend anyone purchase a Galaxy Note 7 at the moment. If you own one, trade it in and get a different phone. Now.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is dead. Samsung has not only halted sales of the device “over concerns about the smartphone’s safety,” but it has also warned users that they should power down their phones. The company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have issued a second recall for all Note 7 devices, including the replacements. The Department of Transportation, along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), also announced on Friday, October 14, that all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices would be banned from airplanes in the U.S. “Individuals who own or possess a Samsung Galaxy Note7 device may not transport the device on their person, in carry-on baggage, or in checked baggage on flights to, from, or within the United States. This prohibition includes all Samsung Galaxy Note7 devices,” the agency said, noting that the phones also can’t be shipped as air cargo.

This officially spells the end for the phone, which was very popular when it was first released. It also spells a logistical nightmare for Samsung. The New York Times suggests the company still doesn’t know what is causing these devices to catch fire, as engineers have not been able to reproduce the problem in tests.

More pressing, the problem is one that may affect your personal safety. Samsung’s challenge is to get consumers to return the device a second time. You can get $100 in bill credit if you exchange your phone for another Samsung device, but you’ll only get $25 if you exchange it for a device from another brand.

Samsung’s mobile chief, Dongjin Koh, has apologized for the Note 7 debacle, pledging to “find the exact cause to restore trust of consumers so that they can use Samsung products without any safety concerns,” according to the Korea Herald. Reports suggest Samsung higher-ups could dethrone him from his post.

Here’s what you need to know.

The following is a list of reported incidents so far, all involving Galaxy Note 7 phones that were replaced:

A Kentucky resident suffered lung damage after his phone filled his bedroom with smoke on Oct. 4

A Note 7 caught fire on a Southwest Airlines flight on Oct. 5

A woman in Taiwan noticed that her phone was emitting smoke in her pocket on Oct. 7

A 13-year-old girl in Minnesota suffered a burn on Oct. 7 when her phone became extremely hot under her thumb

A Virginia man reported that his Note 7 caught fire on his nightstand and filled his room with smoke on Oct. 9

Following this string of incidents, Samsung issued an official statement saying that it has asked all carriers to stop sales of the phone, and that all Galaxy Note 7 users should power down their phones and either get refunds or replace their device as soon as possible.

“Samsung has received 96 reports of batteries in Note 7 phones overheating in the U.S., including 23 new reports since the September 15 recall announcement,” according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). “Samsung has received 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage associated with Note 7 phones.”

Before that, an official at a supplier for Samsung told a Korean news agency that production had been temporarily halted. “This measure includes a Samsung plant in Vietnam that is responsible for global shipments,” the official said. The move follows the decision of U.S. carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to temporarily suspend the phone’s sales.

The crisis began in late August, but reached a head on Sept. 15, when the CPSC, the federal agency charged with overseeing product reports and alerts, issued a formal recall of the more than 1 million Note 7 devices shipped to consumers in the U.S.

Since the recall, Samsung had begun issuing replacement phones. But even those have issues: A replacement phone caught fire aboard a Southwest airlines flight on Oct 5. And on Oct. 7, a woman in Taiwan suffered a scare of her own while walking her dog in a local park when she heard a bang from her jeans pocket. She discovered that her Galaxy Note 7 was emitting smoke. She claims to have replaced her original Samsung device on Sept. 27.

On Friday, 13-year-old Minnesota resident Abby Zuis discovered her replacement Note 7 was no safer than the original. She told local newscasters that she felt a “weird, burning sensation” in her thumb while holding the phone, ultimately suffering a minor burn as a result of the fiery Samsung device.

Most damning is the report that a replacement Galaxy Note 7 caught on fire, and that Samsung knew about it and withheld everything from customers. Kentucky resident Michael Klering told a local news station that he awoke at 4 a.m. on Oct. 4 and realized his new phone had spontaneously combusted and filled his entire bedroom with smoke. Klerig wound up in the hospital with smoke-induced acute bronchitis.

“The phone is supposed to be the replacement, so you would have thought it would be safe,” he told WKYT. “It wasn’t plugged in. It wasn’t anything, it was just sitting there.”

When Klering reported the incident to Samsung, he accidentally received a horrifying text response from a company representative clearly not meant for him:”Just now got this. I can try and slow him down if we think it will matter, or we just let him do what he keeps threatening to do and see if he does it.”

Digital Trends reached out to Klering and we are waiting to hear back.

A fifth replacement Galaxy Note 7 in the U.S. reportedly caught fire over the weekend: Shawn Minter of Virginia reached out to The Verge when his replacement, just over two weeks old, caught fire on his nightstand in the wee hours of the morning.

“My Galaxy Note 7 replacement phone just burst into flames,” Minter said in his emailed statement. “It filled my bedroom with a smoke. The same as the Kentucky man. I woke up in complete panic.”

Under no circumstances should you buy a Galaxy Note 7, or continue using one that you already have.

Related: Federal court reinstates Apple’s $120 million patent win over Samsung

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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