iPhone 4 combusts on flight to Sydney

We’ve all been told to turn our phones off during a flight, but news from a regional Australian flight this morning might just make some of us listen.

The Regional Express ZL319 Lismore to Sydney flight this morning had a fairly unusual occurrence after landing. According to the airline, “a passenger’s mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow.”

While little information is given about how flight staff dealt with the glowing phone, we are told that “the Flight Attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully”.

According to the image released, the culprit was an iPhone 4, one that looks like it has suffered burns and breaks as a result of this.

So what’s the reason this has happened? We’re not quite sure yet. The matter has been passed off to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for investigation and we should know more soon.