French officials have opened an investigation into the possibility that a deadly Egypt Air crash in May 2016 could have been caused by a fire resulting from two Apple products overheating.

French investigators are pursuing a theory that a pair of mobile devices – a iPhone 6S and an iPad Mini 4 belonging to the plane's first officer — may have been plugged into an incorrect socket.

The theory was first raised in January 2017, after investigators from both France and Egypt concluded that the flight's crash was most likely caused by a fire, based on data from the plane's voice recorder and flight data recorder which indicated smoke in both the cockpit and an adjacent bathroom.

But while the French are still exploring different theories, the Egyptians have claimed the fire was the result of an explosion, probably a bomb, citing traces of explosives found of victims' bodies. A reported lack of cooperation and sharing of evidence from the Egyptians is what's pushing France to continue pursuing other theories.

We know high capacity lithium ion batteries, like those used in smartphones or laptops, can beprone to catching fire if they are damaged or have defective components. After all, the widespread problem with the exploding Samsung Galaxy Note7 led the FAA to ban the phonefrom all flights last fall. 

But the Note7 has proven to be the exception, not the rule; examples of Apple devices having done so are few and far between. 

Source: mashable