Sony says battery problem fixed... but is it safe to fly with them?

By Tom Foremski - August 28, 2006

Sony sent SVW the following statement saying all is now well. However, the issue of airplane safety with these batteries is still up in the air. I'm told there will be an official ruling on this very soon.

UPDATE:  Statement Regarding Status of Battery Recall Including Information for Consumers Who May be Impacted

Yesterday the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Apple Computer announced a voluntary recall of lithium ion battery packs used in certain Apple notebook computers originally manufactured by Sony.  This follows a similar recall announced by Dell Computer last week.

At this time, Sony and the CPSC anticipate no further recalls of battery packs using these particular battery cells because incidents resulted from variations in the system configurations of notebook computers produced by specific manufacturers.   Sony has introduced a number of additional safeguards into its battery manufacturing process to address this condition and to provide a greater level of safety and security.  We believe the issue has been addressed to the satisfaction of our customers.

Sony is committed to the safety of consumers and is working with the two computer manufacturers to ensure that the batteries are replaced in a timely fashion.

We encourage consumers who may be impacted by this recall to contact their notebook manufacturer or visit the following web sites for additional information:

Consumer Product Safety Commission:  http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06245.html

Portable Rechargeable Battery Association:   http://www.prba.org/lithium_ion_safety.html

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Corporate Site

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200608/06-0825E/


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By Tom Foremski - August 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comment | Category: News Watch
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Comments (1)

JP:

Those flaming laptop photos must have been a PR nightmare! Here's a take from a PR expert I ran across that provides some recommendations for how they should have responded to this - http://www.levick.com/resources/topics/articles/dell_battery_crisis.php

Also, how does Sony get off easy on all of this? Apparently Apple had some issues with their batteries too.


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