Bad Repairs Blamed For Smoking iPhone On Australian Flight Last Year

Back in November of 2011, we mentioned a man had his iPhone 4 start smoking on Australian flight just as it landed. The flight in question was operated by Qantas airline and no one on board was hurt. I wager there were some soiled undies on the flight. It was originally reported that the phone was confiscated and sent to ATSB for analysis.

The analysis of that burning iPhone has now been published and it appears that the phone started smoking due to faulty repairs. The owner of the phone had taken it in to an unauthorized repair center to have the screen replaced. The people who performed those repairs seemingly did everything wrong.

According to the report, a small screw inside the iPhone had been misplaced in the battery bay. That screw was able to puncture battery and caused an internal short circuit that led to overheating and thermal runaway. That's fancy talk for heat and smoke. Other than that misplaced screw, apparently, two more screws to retain a flexible cable inside were installed the wrong way, a Clip on the battery had been deformed, and two liquid contact indicators have been removed along with some adhesive on the main circuit board. In other words, the repair was shoddy all-around leading to the smoking mess.

[via CNET]