Thinkpad battery fire at LAX
The recent problems with spontaneously combusting lithium-ion batteries in Dell and Apple computers appears to have turned up in IBM Thinkpads now.
the ThinkPad (which was quoted to be an IBM, not a Lenovo) apparently had a number of death throes as the fire went through various phases, until eventually a United employee busted out the fire extinguisher and laid the laptop to rest. Apparently the machine’s owner already checked its battery against the recalls and it was not listed — and why would it be? IBM and Lenovo aren’t flagged for bad batteries — yet.
I cleaned up the photo a bit to get a better look. Based on the battery placement and connectors it looks quite a lot like my T42P. It will be interesting to see whether that battery was an original IBM-supplied battery or from a 3rd party. My notebook has a Sanyo battery. The recent battery fires have all been in Sony-manufactured units. There are also a lot of low quality generic batteries available in Asia, but the Thinkpad is mostly purchased by corporate and consulting users, who are likely to stick with original equipment.
It would be really miserable if we end up with a ban on notebook computers in airplane cabins. I’ve been on at least one international flight in which everyone on the upper deck (business class) of a 747 appeared to be equipped with Thinkpads.
There’s a short discussion at the Thinkpad forums, and the original post at Something Awful.
See also: Dell recalls notebook batteries - who’s next?
Update Monday 09-18-2006 16:43PDT - The owner of the notebook posted in the comments over at Engadget. It was a T43, and it was turned off and in its case when it caught on fire…
Awesom-o: It’s legit. How do I know? Because it’s mine (I was wondering how long it would take before someone posted this on engadget). The thing went up like a firecracker when the fire hit each of the cells. It was pretty crazy.
And yes, it’s a ThinkPad T43. I don’t know if it was a Sony battery - I can’t tell now that it’s a charred mess, but my guess is that it was if they made them for IBM. I was using it 30 minutes before and it had no problems. It was even turned off and in my bag when it caught fire. So even if the computer is off, there’s still a risk of a fire - now that’s scary.
It’s going to be an interesting Monday morning when I take the thing into the office for a replacement. One thing for sure, I’m always going to disconnect the battery from the computer whenever I fly. At least I have a good excuse for not working when I’m flying
Everyone please check your computer battery, and just because it isn’t on the list doesn’t mean that it’s not at risk. If anything, just disconnect the thing when you fly.
Update Wednesday 09-20-2006 16:25PDT - Lenovo confirms that it was a T43, although doesn’t say if it had Sony batteries. (CNET)
Update Friday 09-29-2006 11:09PDT - Lenovo issues a recall for 500K Thinkpad batteries, including recent T43 and T60s.
Tags: ibm, thinkpad, battery, security, travel
September 18th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
This sounds like a hoax to me! There was nothing mention in the news, I’m sure this would make the national news or at least the LA times!
If this computer was burning for 2-5 minutes or maybe longer then how come the 100 or so by-stander didn’t take one flaming photo with there cell phone? Maybe no-one in LA has a digital camera?
I’m wondering if it’s against the law to discharge fire extinguisher in a public building and not report it! YES IT IS!! Plus you have some dude running off the airplane yelling get out of my way she ready to blow! And no police are called by the ticket agent to check out this nut case? I want to know what airline this guy was flying, so I can stay away from them!! Didn’t the airlines notice there head count was off? Did that airline leave without him? That’s a FCC inquire if they did that! But then again maybe the airplane waited for the guy?
Don’t tell me the plane waited for this guy while he removed a fire bomb from a airplane! And no official police report was issued? No news people were informed? Hell this guy just saved 200 peoples lives he’s a national hero and no-one took his photo?
Where are all of the people at the LAX airport? I don’t see any feet!
Maybe the police closed down that wing at LAX? Oh never mind I forgot the new home security policy states when a fire bomb is taken off an airplane the police don’t need to be called.
How come only William Shatner wrote to one web site? Do you think Bill is laughing at everyone because his phony story is flying around the net?
Until I see William Shatner on Letterman telling us what happen at LAX then, I can’t believe there is any truth to this outrageous story , there is too many loop holes, Lucky for you I’m a science officer and study the logical facts.
Leonard Nimoy
October 12th, 2006 at 7:07 am
My question is to the gentlemen who’s thinkpad caught on fire in LAX.
You had mentioned that you had turned it off 30 minutes prior to your flight. Were you using external power with battery in laptop, or, operating just on battery power alone.
Regards