Apple sued over iPhone's alleged role in EgyptAir flight 804 crash

Posted:
in iPhone edited May 2018
The claimants operating theory suggests that an overheating iPhone 6s or tablet caused the crash that killed 66 people in 2016.

EgyptAir's 2016 crash is being blamed on Apple


Several survivors of victims of the EgyptAir crash have filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that an iPhone 6S or iPad Mini belonging to the copilot overheated in the cockpit and caught fire, leading to the crash. The suit was first reported by gossip website TMZ .

EgyptAir Flight 804 was a flight from Paris to Cairo that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, 2016, killing all 66 people aboard. Nearly two years later, the cause of the crash remains mysterious. Investigations continue, although many reports have stated that smoke had been detected on the plane.

Theories as to what caused the crash have run the gamut from terrorism to a fire that began in the plane's avionics bay.

Now, plaintiffs' attorneys think they've found a culprit for the mysterious crash: Apple. It's not clear how much money the suit is for, or what jurisdiction it was filed in.

Not much substance, and a hard road

Also unclear is how the plaintiffs plan to establish that the iPhone or iPad caused the crash, or how they may determine that the copilot's device was responsible.

A published investigation in early 2017 laid out the circumstantial case that a copilot had placed his iPhone and tablet on a glare-shield in the cockpit, as seen on CCTV cameras.

Experts pushed back on that theory. David Learmount, a former pilot and operations and safety editor at Flight International magazine, told The Daily Telegraph in 2017 that the theory was a "red herring," and far from the most plausible explanation.

"A phone bursting into flames just below the windscreen is a fairly spectacular thing to take place on a flight, and they would have told somebody on the ground. Nobody has mentioned this," Learmount said. "The key point is while there were warnings about the window heating systems, there were also smoke alarms in the toilet and avionics bay under the floor. How would the fire have got under there? It doesn't make sense."

Learmount believes that the computer in the avionics bay was damaged, and issued erroneous warnings to the pilot after a short-circuit or explosion.

There are no documented cases of an "exploding" iPhone causing a plane to crash. However, there were a couple of well-publicized incidents in 2016 in which smartphones either spontaneously combusted or otherwise began smoking on planes. One of them was in the news just weeks before the EgyptAir crash. None of those cases caused an explosion even remotely near large enough to threaten the plane itself or result in any fatalities.

For the Apple suit to succeed, attorneys will need to demonstrate that the iPhone caused the plane to crash, and that Apple was somehow culpable in the engineering surrounding the battery, resulting in the fire.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    eideardeideard Posts: 428member
    There are no limits to human greed.
    wozwozMuntznetmagejbdragonStargate70tzm41jony0olswatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 22
    ericthehalfbeeericthehalfbee Posts: 4,485member
    Won’t go anywhere. The fact alarms went off in the avionics bay below the pilots floor should be enough to get this entire case thrown out.
    wlymwozwozMuntzjbdragonStargate70tzm41h2pjony0olswatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 22
    They're jumping the gun a bit in the hope of a settlement I reckon. 

    If the off-chance it WAS an iPhone, if it was the Pilot's own property and they were charging it in the cockpit - I'd say the blame lies solely with him/her for introducing that risk, not the device. Today's blame-culture is crazy.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Apple has $250+ Billion dollars and everyone thinks they deserve a piece of it. Yes it completely sucks what happened and I do feel for them, and I would think the families want answers but I'd like to know how much evidence they have that proves Apple was at fault here. If it was an Apple device, how do they know it wasn't some cheap $1 charger that 99.9% of the time is the cause of a battery fire? 
    Muntzlkruppnetmagejbdragonh2polswatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 22
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    Ridiculous assertions being made, but it won’t stop the Apple haters from running with the meme that Apple products bring down planes.   I can hope only that the plaintives’ attorneys recognize there will be no settlement forthcoming from Apple; it would be the worst thing Apple could do to try to sweep this under the rug, the haters would take that as admission of guilt and then there’d be no end to the bullshit. 
    macxpressMuntznetmagewatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 22
    nunzynunzy Posts: 662member
    All the Apple haters are going to go wild. And when we say they're wrong, they will call us fanboys. They are all the same.
    MuntzjbdragonmavemufcStargate70watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 22
    atomic101atomic101 Posts: 131member
    I'm fairly critical about product flaws, but this one is a lofty stretch. 
    Muntzwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 22
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,911member
    Exactly how many iPad fires have been reported? I can't think of any. Doesn't mean there haven't been any, but they are certainly incredibly rare and it's hard to argue that there's a design defect. Ditto iPhone fires. I think I've seen maybe 3 or 4 reports. Hardly an epidemic and even harder to argue that the phone or iPad were the cause, especially given the lack of evidence. Now, if the pilot had a Samsung phone...
    MuntzjbdragonStargate70watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 22
    tommikeletommikele Posts: 599member
    This lawsuit is just more evidence as to why some people think dead lawyer jokes shouldn't be jokes ... There should be penalties and sanctions for lawyers and clients pulling this crap. You know these people were recruited by the lawyers and never had even the slightest thought until the low life contingency fee lawyers descended on them.
    netmageh2pentropyswatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 22
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    eideard said:
    There are no limits to human greed.
    Leave greed to the lawyers. The families are striking out in anger and desperation. They want someone or something to blame, to point at and say that’s what killed their family member. The lawyers are preying on that anger and grief. And don’t think for a minute that a properly researched and selected jury wouldn’t fulfill their wishes. Even if the case is dismissed the lawyers will probably ask the judge to make Apple pay their expenses. The part that really concerns me is the media picking this up and plastering the headline “IPHONE CAUSES JET TO CRASH AND ALL ARE KILLED” all over the Internet and printed news.
    edited May 2018 h2pjony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 22
    I think it was caused by a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 bursting into flames. What? That didn't come out until months later? It doesn't matter! These people aren't letting facts get in their way, so why should I?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 22
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    Here's a perfect example of a case that should be thrown out. Theory's are not facts. This is trying to find someone, anyone with HUGE pockets to sue over a tragic accident. Apple is at the top of the pile for anyone.

    Apple is not going to settle this case. They'll fight it, and I hope they sue for lawyer and other costs associated with this B.S. lawsuit.
    edited May 2018 watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 22
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,783member
    When will the legal profession start policing its own? 

    Suits like this only reinforce the stereotype of lawyers as sleazy, greedy SOBs. The type of people that you do not want to associate with. So what happens if I DO have a legal problem? Where I should seek legal advice. Sorry but Perry Mason is gone. All people have to choose from are sleeze-balls that would sue their mother if they could make a buck? So why would I call one of them? At the very least they'll cost me a lot and I'll get no satisfaction. Even if I do 'win' the lawyer would get most of any award and I'd end up with nothing. So I might as well handle it myself. 

    I'm not saying that IS my opinion. Just that the legal profession has put themselves into this position. By not disciplining those that abuse the system, the view has arose among the public that it doesn't matter what your claim, status, or victimhood is, that a lawyer is always the bad guy. Is always working for themselves first. That the law is ruled by greed, and winning takes precedence over what is right, what is just. 

    Is there anyone in the legal profession that would be willing to answer this? How can we have a justice system when one of the most important parts of that system, the attorneys, has through their own actions become utterly unworthy of respect? What is the legal profession going to do to reform their image.  

    Any lawyers out there want to weigh in?
    atomic101linkmanentropyswatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 22
    rotateleftbyterotateleftbyte Posts: 1,630member
    eideard said:
    There are no limits to human greed.
    Sorry, but

    There are no limits to the greed of Lawyers

    That's more like it IMHO.
    macxpresswatto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 22
    maciekskontaktmaciekskontakt Posts: 1,169member
    Ridiculous assertions being made, but it won’t stop the Apple haters from running with the meme that Apple products bring down planes.   I can hope only that the plaintives’ attorneys recognize there will be no settlement forthcoming from Apple; it would be the worst thing Apple could do to try to sweep this under the rug, the haters would take that as admission of guilt and then there’d be no end to the bullshit. 
    Is this the only place we see haters these days? I will leave it at that since you are moderator.
  • Reply 16 of 22
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    Aviation experts could not discover the source of the fire. But a lawyer has? The fact that it might have been an Apple iDevice is enough to put forth a lawsuit? Wow, the losing party really should pay all legal costs.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    They seem to be jumping to conclusion quite a bit from how I read it. 

    Cant see this going anywhere without some more evidence. 
  • Reply 18 of 22
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    Won’t go anywhere. The fact alarms went off in the avionics bay below the pilots floor should be enough to get this entire case thrown out.
    What is also interesting were the reports that French investigators found traces of TNT on wreckage from the plane. Either way, suing over an unproven theory is pretty ridiculous. 
    jbdragon
  • Reply 19 of 22
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Lawyers. Can they be disbarred for frivolous lawsuits such as this?
  • Reply 20 of 22
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,265member
    eideard said:
    There are no limits to human greed.
    Sorry, but

    There are no limits to the greed of Lawyers

    That's more like it IMHO.

    I think the OP was correct. Lawyers can thrive only due to the greed of people.
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