According to information published by CNTechPost, a man in China recently suffered a serious accident with his Apple AirPods. Usually, people are aware that phones can explode, but incidents involving headphones are relatively rare. It is quite surprising that this happened with Apple’s “must-have” headphones.
The victim of this incident is Tang, a 23-year-old from Zhengzhou. Tang stated that he was wearing AirPods to take a call on May 19 when suddenly the right earbud exploded, causing him to faint. Ten minutes later, Tang woke up feeling excruciating pain and significant swelling on the right side of his face, including the area around his ear.
According to a diagnosis from Zhengzhou University Hospital, the explosion caused a T-shaped laceration on the anterior wall of the right ear canal, and Tang was advised to be hospitalized immediately for surgery. His condition improved after two days of treatment, but he experienced pain in his right ear and showed signs of hearing loss. Therefore, Tang decided to visit the hospital once more.
This time, Tang was diagnosed with swelling in front of the right ear, a small laceration in the shape of a “T”, fresh bleeding, a tear in the cartilage of the right ear canal, about 1 cm long, and blood accumulation in the tympanic cavity. From the images of the exploded AirPods, there is a clear crack, but no burn marks. This has led many to doubt Tang’s accident.
Tang claims he purchased the AirPods for 1,276 yuan from an Apple dealer at a local shopping center. Apple staff stated they will collect the devices for further investigation, and if there are quality issues with the product, the store will be legally required to compensate the consumer.
Since its launch in 2016, AirPods have become one of Apple’s best-selling products. Third-party data shows that Apple sold over 60 million AirPods in 2019, capturing over 50% of the global market for wireless headphones.