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Laptop Battery Drama Lives On - In Mid-Air |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Friday, 14 July 2006 |
The Dell Exploding laptop photos have been a huge hit on the
Internet since they were revealed in June, with the story slowly making its way
into the mainstream media.
Interest in the story, sparked by the graphic photos has
even led one financial analyst to warn that if the news gets out to the public
at large it would negatively impact on the company's share price.
For now though, Dell has other problems to worry about with
growth stunted by perceptions of poor customer service and so on.
But what about rest of us? Do we have to worry about putting
our laptops on our lap tops?
We reported, here, about Info-Tech
analyst Carmi Levy, who took the Dell exploding laptop news as an opportunity
to point out that since these sorts of incidents aren't' really that rare,
shouldn't we do something about it?
There are plenty of reports where the Lithium ion batteries
in laptop computers have caused a meltdown leading to fire. They just don't
make the news because there's rarely anybody standing by with a camera.
When you think, there are 80 million notebook computers to
be sold world wide this year, even a tiny failure rate in these batteries can
still cause plenty of laptops to spontaneously combust.
Now, the point about Carmi Levy at Info-Tech, was that he
pointed out these exploding laptops could have catastrophic consequences if the
meltdown occurred on a passenger plane.
We worry so much about terrorist threats, screening
passengers and luggage before every flight, he argued, yet we let these
potentially dangerous devices on board every flight without a second thought.
He has a fair point.
Well, that's the background to this story.
According to the Seattle
Post a fire aboard a UPS cargo plane in Philadelphia could be the result of one of
these laptop battery meltdowns. It's not known whether the laptop batteries were Dell branded.
All three crew members on the plane were treated for minor
injuries after making an emergency landing earlier this year. Investigators found
several computer laptop batteries on the plane. Some of which had been burned.
At this point they haven't decided whether they are chickens or eggs.
Well it turns out that this is not a case of amazing
precognition on the part of the levy. There are apparently several other reported
incidents where lithium batteries have caught fire onboard.
Less than two months ago in the US a spare laptop battery (that's
right it wasn't even in use) was being stored in a bag in an overhead locker
when it started smoking and that's banned on flights, right.
One of the cabin crew used an extinguisher on the thing and
all was okay. However, back at the airport, the bag eventually did fully catch
fire. (Again it's not known if it was a Dell brand battery.)
The US National Transportation Safety Board began looking
into the UPS cargo plane incident this week. Several hazardous materials on
board the plane at the time of the fire have already been discounted as the culprit
and it may take months before they decide the cause of the Philadelphia fire.
UPDATE: Dell To Recall
Exploding Batteries
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