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Several Chinese news sources are reporting that at some time in the last 24 hours an air hostess was electrocuted when she was talking on her iPhone 5 at the same time it was charging.

Hong Kong News Yahoo Video report

Sing Tao Daily - Charging iPhone 5 electrocuted pretty stewardess

English version now in Reuters story linked in update below.

UPDATE: Reuters is now claiming that Apple has stated that it will investigate the claims made. source

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  • I added in google translated version as a quote, and made the links work. – Wertilq Jul 14 '13 at 10:16
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    Seems like a better title might be "Can you be electrocuted by a charging phone?" – rjzii Jul 14 '13 at 14:59
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    I don't think any voltage higher than 5V DC ever even reaches the phone: they are USB chargeable and the usb cables don't have the space to house an upconverter – ratchet freak Jul 14 '13 at 18:39
  • Did your iPhone delete your comment about it conspiring not to ask this question? – Andrew Grimm Jul 15 '13 at 02:23
  • @ratchetfreak electrocution of course is not so much a question of voltage as current, but the same thing goes for the current as well. – jwenting Jul 15 '13 at 05:39
  • What if there were a lightning strike that entered the power grid and some of that high voltage made it to the phone before being grounded by safety devices ? – Paul Jul 15 '13 at 07:31
  • Even if the charger is intended to deliver 5VDC to the phone, it is not unreasonable that a voltage spike in the mains current, caused by a poorly designed distribution network or lightning, can propagate through the charger and reach the phone. Voltage and current are proportional for all relevant purposes. – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo Jul 15 '13 at 08:09
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    More likely perhaps is that a poorly made charger with inadequate creepage and clearance distances or with inadequate insulation between primary and secondary windings or some other design or manufacturing defect results in a bridge between the high voltage and low voltage sides of the PCB inside the charger. Apples design passes US and EU regulations, some Chinese made alternatives and fakes do not. – RedGrittyBrick Jul 15 '13 at 11:03

1 Answers1

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Was an air hostess electrocuted by her iPhone 5

No, she was electrocuted by her cheap Chinese charger.

A Chinese woman was electrocuted whilst holding an iPhone. However ...

  • The phone was an iPhone 4 not an iPhone 5
  • She had just stepped out of a bath (so may have been wet and dripping water)
  • The charger was not an Apple product but a cheap Chinese fake.

enter image description here

The moral here is

  • When wet, don't handle electrical goods that are connected to wall outlets.
  • Cheap shoddily-made unbranded or fake-brand wall-warts are notoriously unsafe and can kill.

Allegations in English language Media

There are reports in English language news media of an allegation that a Chinese woman was electrocuted whilst using an iPhone connected to a charger.

The allegations were made by the woman's sister using social media website Sina Weibo

It may be that these early reports are all based on a single initial Xinhua report.

Other possible factors

According to a CNN report - "The family told @Stewardess network that she had left a bath to answer a call."

No Corroboration (yet?)

So far there has been no report of a police statement or coroner's verdict confirming the details of the allegation - that I can find.

Police in Changji, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where the victim and her family reside, confirmed with the Global Times on Sunday that they have received reports from the victim's family and started an investigation, but declined to disclose further details.

According to a BBC report

News agency Xinhua has confirmed police are investigating the death of Ma Ailun in the north-western city of Xinjiang. But it said they had not verified if a mobile phone was the cause.

Fake iPhone chargers

There have been previous reports of electric shocks from fake iPhone chargers and the safety of fake iPhone chargers is notorious 1 2. The sister claims it was original equipment from an Apple store but it look like she was wrong.

The BBC report, referred to above, says

Xinhua said the China Consumers Associations had previously reported a man had been killed in 2010 while making a phone call using a handset connected to the mains with an unauthorised charger.

A teardown of a fake charger shows why these can be dangerous. As pointed out by Rob in a comment below

Fake charger PCB

RedGrittyBrick
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    `However the sister claims it was original equipment from an Apple store.` Some chinese fake "Apple" employees believe they work for Apple themselves. The sister is not a reliable source IMHO. – Aeronth Jul 15 '13 at 12:19
  • unless the equipment was investigated that is indeed a unreliable claim – ratchet freak Jul 15 '13 at 20:39
  • If you would like to see technical electrical details between a properly designed Apple product versus an unsafe imitation, Dave Jones (EEVBlog) has a teardown video showing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE – JYelton Jul 19 '13 at 17:50
  • Someone did a tear-down of a fake charger that you might want to include in the answer - http://www.righto.com/2012/03/inside-cheap-phone-charger-and-why-you.html – rjzii Jul 25 '13 at 15:28
  • For comparison: Genuine charger teardown: http://www.righto.com/2012/05/apple-iphone-charger-teardown-quality.html – RedGrittyBrick Jul 25 '13 at 16:09
  • Apple have put up a [web-page to help Chinese consumers identify genuine Apple chargers](http://www.apple.com.cn/power-adapters/). The cynics (realists?) among us will wonder how long it takes the fakers to use that page as a guide to fooling consumers. – RedGrittyBrick Jul 26 '13 at 10:23
  • @RedGrittyBrick making/selling electronic equipment that has a IEC safety label knowing it doesn't follow the requirements for the label is a greater offense than just making unsafe equipment – ratchet freak Aug 09 '13 at 12:49
  • @ratchet freak: That surely depends on the country in which you are making or from which you are selling the item. For example, picking a country at random, I'd find it hard to cite a Chinese law that explicitly refers to "IEC" labels. Also in manufacturing countries in which bribery and official corruption are endemic, such laws are often [not effectively enforced](http://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/a-list-of-multimeters-that-do-not-appear-to-meet-their-claimed-safety-specs/). – RedGrittyBrick Aug 09 '13 at 13:12
  • @RedGrittyBrick you should look for [SAC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_Administration_of_China) – ratchet freak Aug 09 '13 at 13:22
  • I'm having trouble seeing how that would help me improve my answer to *"was an air hostess electrocuted by her iPhone5?"* – RedGrittyBrick Aug 09 '13 at 13:27
  • I doubt a bad charger could electrocute somebody through a plastic phone. Metal phones are only good for catching bullets. – Cees Timmerman Dec 02 '13 at 16:54
  • @Cees: Don't plastic phones have metal exposed at the charging connectors where water running from a freshly showered hand might find a conductive path? I look forward to reading about your bathroom experiments with cheap wet chargers :-) – RedGrittyBrick Dec 02 '13 at 16:59