Exploding Headphones Reignite Fears about Batteries on Planes

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
I’m going to assume that her headphones were of the wireless variety, so I’ll go ahead and joke how we now have another reason to stick to wired headsets aside from better sound quality—at least they won’t blow your head off. I have never seen headphones explode before, but apparently it isn’t pretty.

About two hours into the flight while sleeping, the passenger heard a loud explosion. “As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face,” she said. “I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck. “I continued to feel burning so I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor. They were sparking and had small amounts of fire.“As I went to stamp my foot on them the flight attendants were already there with a bucket of water to pour on them. They put them into the bucket at the rear of the plane.” The battery and cover were both melted and stuck to the floor of the aircraft.
 
I can take heart in the knowledge that if my new Beats X headphones explode it will be because Apple designed them to.

All jokes aside, I will definitely not be sleeping with them anymore.
 
They don't talk about the brand she was using.

I'm just going to say she was going from Beijing to Melbourne. Those Chinese knock off headphones are no good.
 
They don't talk about the brand she was using.

I'm just going to say she was going from Beijing to Melbourne. Those Chinese knock off headphones are no good.

I was going to post something along those lines but with all the shit that's been going down with Samsung lately, I'm not sure even the authentic brands care about quality anymore.

It's just an endless quest to drive higher and higher margins through any possible means.
 
Wait till your car is made out of a few thousand of these... fantastic!
 
All these battery explosions lately are pretty concerning.

I'll be sticking to the wired variety as well.
 
Remember folks, Wireless is better! (Better to put the batteries closer to your heads so when our robot overlords decide for end us they can start by causing all these batteries to self detonate). See? Better!

All joking aside I still stick with my trusty wired headphones. They just work and work well!
 
Prelude to Running Man exploding head collars. Basically beat us with mediocrity and failure until acceptance. :wtf:
 
  • Like
Reactions: dgz
like this
I had a super cheap pair of bluetooth headphones and swapped them out for some jaybird X2's i got on clearance from walmart. I guess I should be extra glad to have a name brand unless it comes out that she was wearing a pair of jaybirds lol
 
Good quality batteries are expensive, they require lots of research and quality control to make sure that the formula is stable and end product safe. Much like the recipe for capacitors the was leaked back in late 90's, many of the better battery brands have had their products reverse engineered by a number of questionable companies. This is the result, its the capacitor plague all over again.
 
"we now have another reason to stick to wired headsets aside from better sound quality"

This irked me... If you get a cheap $30 wireless headset and compare it to a $200+ wired headset, of course the sound quality is going to be better.... However, a good $200+ brand name wireless headset can sound just as good as a $200 wired headset...
 
As I went to stamp my foot on them the flight attendants were already there with a bucket of water to pour on them. They put them into the bucket at the rear of the plane. The battery and cover were both melted and stuck to the floor of the aircraft.

Not sure throwing an electrical battery fire into a bucket of water was a good decision.
 
Not sure throwing an electrical battery fire into a bucket of water was a good decision.

I had a trouble call once for a person who poured water into their CRT monitor because it was "too hot". People do stupid things when they are ignorant on the tech involved.
 
Wait till your car is made out of a few thousand of these... fantastic!

I'm pretty sure the gasoline currently in cars is much more explosive than the batteries inside electric cars. I'm also fairly certain plenty of gas cars have spontaneously combusted because of poor craftsmanship or poor maintenance.

No matter how you store energy there is usually a way for it to be released suddenly if something goes wrong. Based on % failure rate I would feel much safer with an electrical car than an internal combustion engine.
 
All of my headphones are wired.

A. They are much cheaper
B. They sound so much better
C. They won't like your hair on fire like Michael Jackson in a Pepsi commercial....
 
Not sure throwing an electrical battery fire into a bucket of water was a good decision.

You would think that because there's electricity involved but actually with lithium based batteries in thermal runaway throwing it in a bucket of water is about the best thing you can do since it will bring down the internal temp. The only issue with doing this is that you're left with a bucket full of toxic crud to get rid of.
 
Exploding headphones? Not sure if I like the sound of that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dgz
like this
I'm pretty sure the gasoline currently in cars is much more explosive than the batteries inside electric cars. I'm also fairly certain plenty of gas cars have spontaneously combusted because of poor craftsmanship or poor maintenance.

No matter how you store energy there is usually a way for it to be released suddenly if something goes wrong. Based on % failure rate I would feel much safer with an electrical car than an internal combustion engine.

Gasoline isn't explosive at all actually. You know of a car that has spontaneously combusted? Really? I'd love to see that.

Gasoline requires O2 to burn.
 
Probably were beats, given those are low grade Chinese crap marketed to people who haven't discovered how to research products.
 
Wow that's going to leave a mark.... oh wait, it already did.

OK... I am guilty of shopping for cheapo BT headphones but haven't bought in yet. I will hold off. Getting earbuds yanked out of ears is annoying, but having them explode in my ears would likely be worse.
 
Wait till your car is made out of a few thousand of these... fantastic!

Yeah it would be terrible if cars contained a bunch of flammable explosive fuel!




Gasoline requires O2 to burn.

That will make me feel much better the next time I drive my car somewhere other than the surface of planet earth.
 
Last edited:
Don't worry, these wireless earbuds now come with a safety harness that attaches to your phone via a small cylindrical pin, so if they burst into flames you can give them a tug to remove them. Also prevents them from being lost so easily.
 
Yeah it would be terrible if cars contained a bunch of flammable explosive fuel!






That will make me feel much better the next time I drive my car somewhere other than the surface of planet earth.



Your Strawman is illogical. These cars aren't spontaneously combusting.
 
That will make me feel much better the next time I drive my car somewhere other than the surface of planet earth.

It requires a certain mixture to explode. Why do you think you have an air intake?
 
Back
Top