After at least three airlines in Australia banned the Galaxy Note 7 from their flights following numerous reports of the device catching fire, it is now apparently the turn of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India to issue a strongly-worded advisory urging airline passengers “Not to turn on or charge Samsung Galaxy Note 7 mobile phone on board the aircraft”. In a message strikingly similar to the warning issued by the U.S Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) earlier today, the DGCA also asked airline passengers not to put their Galaxy Note 7 phones in their checked baggage. The DGCA works with the Ministry for Civil Aviation in India to formulate safety and regulatory guidelines that govern the civil aviation sector in the country.
The circular was issued earlier today and is basically more an advisory at this point in time rather than a move to ban the device altogether from fights originating within the country. Understandably though, the DGCA is not the only aviation regulator in the world to have expressed its concerns regarding Samsung’s ill-fated new phablet. The FAA, as mentioned already, also did the exact same thing citing “recent incidents and concerns raised by Samsung” after the company issued an unprecedented global recall for the Galaxy Note 7 last week following an internal investigation that reveled a fault with the batteries inside a large number of the smartphones. Japanese aviation authorities have also urged passengers not to turn on or charge any Galaxy Note 7 units on board an aircraft, making it one of at least three national aviation regulators to have taken this extraordinary step today.
Meanwhile, as far as the situation in India is concerned, while Samsung had launched the device in the country late last month at a price of Rs. 59,990 ($900) for the base 4GB + 64GB version, it was thankfully yet to go on sale. That was supposed to happen on September 2nd, but now that the shipments have been delayed for obvious reasons, the company is offering a free Gear VR headset and a Rs. 3,300 ($50) “Oculus content voucher” to customers who have already pre-ordered the device and are now waiting for the company to announce its next move. While Samsung Australia has officially announced that replacement stock of the smartphone will be available to customers from September 21st, the Indian unit of the South Korean company is yet to make any official commitment on that front.