iPhone spontaneously combusts during flight

File photo / Getty Images

An Apple iPhone has exploded on a plane, raising fears over the safety of the devices.

The phone spontaneously combusted during landing, "emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow", the airline said.

The fire was put out by a flight attendant and the device, thought to be an iPhone4, given to air traffic safety investigators for checks. No passengers or crew were harmed.

The cause has yet to be identified but experts said it could be due to the battery overheating or the device being a counterfeit model.

Last year the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. issued a safety alert after a cargo plane carrying a large shipment of the rechargeable lithium ion batteries caught fire and crashed near Dubai, killing both pilots.

The iPhone incident happened on a domestic Australian flight run by Regional Express between Lismore and Sydney on Friday. A spokesman for Regional Express said: "In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the flight attendant carried out recovery action immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully."

Rob Temple, of Technology magazine T3, said: "This is a very rare thing and so it makes you suspect it might be a counterfeit battery."

This month Apple recalled first generation iPod nano music players due to concerns about defective batteries overheating. However, these devices were made in 2005 and 2006, and so were much older than the exploding phone.

- DAILY MAIL