A self-combusting iPhone 4 that became red hot on an Australian commercial aircraft and had to be extinguished by a flight attendant has sparked a public investigation, safety authorities confirmed Tuesday.

Small Australian carrier Regional Express said in a statement that the incident on a service flying to Sydney from northern New South Wales state has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, or ATSB, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, CASA, for investigation and directions.

The incident isn't unique. Rare occurrences of overheating in isolated Apple Inc. (AAPL) products have been reported before, but such experiences haven't been confined to that company's products or to smart phones. In a well-documented case, Dell in 2006 recalled millions of lithium batteries after they caused its laptops to catch fire and Hewlett-Packard had similar problems with batteries in some of its laptops in 2009.

A Sydney-based Apple spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment Tuesday.

A spokesman for CASA confirmed the incident has been referred to the regulator and to the ATSB for investigation. "There's nothing for us to do at this stage, beyond looking at the outcome of the ATSB's investigation," the CASA spokesman said.

"We look forward to working with the officials investigating this incident," said a spokesperson for Apple in Australia.

The ATSB said on its website that its investigation of the incident, which it said involved fumes, smoke and fire, is active and continuing.

Regional Express said that a passengers' s phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow shortly after the plane landed in Sydney.

"In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the flight attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully," the airline said, adding that nobody was hurt.

 
   -By Ross Kelly, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4692; Ross.Kelly@dowjones.com
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