ThinkPad on fire at LAX

Darius Chang | Sep 21, 2006

Editors' note :

The identity of the notebook which met with a fiery end has been confirmed to be a ThinkPad T43. Investigations by Lenovo and Sony are still ongoing to determine if the power cell in question belonged to the contaminated batch of batteries.

According to reports at Something Awful forums, a ThinkPad made a spectacular showing in the Los Angeles airport by becoming a flaming hotplate. The owner of the ill-fated machine claimed that his battery was not on the list of recalled power cells--a fact which gave little comfort to the group of passengers gathered around the ThinkPad as it went up in smoke.

Could this be yet another case of contaminated Sony-manufactured batteries? Though we do know that some ThinkPads are using cells made by the Japanese manufacturer, Lenovo has not, at the time of publishing, initiated a battery recall unlike Dell and Apple. According to Lenovo Singapore, a team of investigators have been dispatched to perform forensics on the DB (dead battery) and laptop. Meanwhile, we are pretty certain the Korean and Australian national carriers may be considering adding ThinkPads to the list of banned laptops on their flights.