Foreign part punctures battery pack, causes short circuit

May 15, 2013 13:52 GMT  ·  By

An Apple customer from Thailand has had a misfortune with his iPhone which reportedly had an extra part inside that caused the battery to short circuit.

The explosion of said iPhone kicked off an investigation by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) which concluded on Tuesday, the Bangkok Post reports.

NBTC Secretary-General Takorn Tantasit said the phone blew up because of a screw had “penetrated into the phone’s battery and caused a short circuit.”

The screw wasn’t supposed to be there, while other “pentagram” screws had been misplaced on the handset, according to investigators.

The blame most likely lies on Foxconn, Apple’s China-based iPhone assembler.

The video embedded above shows the remains of the device after the explosion. The owner was talking on the phone at the time of the explosion. He managed to escape any injuries because the phone had gotten extremely hot, at which point he threw it to the ground.

Going by the video, the iPhone still had its protective plastic film applied on the back at the time of the incident.