ThinkPad purportedly flames out at LAX
ThinkPad purportedly flames out at LAX
Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications.
"Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
We know some passengers can get a little heated up waiting at the airport, but this is ridiculous. According to several online reports, accompanied by incriminating photos, a ThinkPad laptop burst into flames at LAX over the weekend, causing considerable panic. Originally reported on the popular , an eyewitness posted this account:
"So we're waiting for a flight in the United lounge at LAX. The flight next to ours was heading to London and in the middle of final boarding when suddenly this guy comes running the wrong way up the jetway, pushing other boarding passengers out of the way, he quickly drops his laptop on the floor and the thing immediately flares up like a giant firework for about 15 seconds, then catches fire."The story has since been picked up by tech bloggers from Engadget, Gizmodo, Gearlog and CNET Asia. Unlike Dell and Apple, there is no recall of ThinkPad batteries (also, some reports claim the system that flamed out was an older IBM model, not a newer Lenovo one), so we'll have to wait and see if this is an isolated case or a new problem.
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