Samsung takes out full-page ad to apologize to Galaxy Note 7 users for quality issues

"An important tenet of our mission is to offer best-in-class safety and quality. Recently, we fell short on this promise," said President and CEO of Samsung America Gregory Lee. "For this we are truly sorry."

"We will re-examine every aspect of the device, including all hardware, software, manufacturing and the overall battery structure," said Samsung. "We will move as quickly as possible, but will take the time needed to get the right answers."

Samsung has yet to determine what caused the fires in the initial shipments of the device, or in the replacement units. Most of the reported fires with the initial release were during charging, according to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Employees involved in the post-recall testing claimed that they were required to keep communications about the evaluation process offline, with e-mails and other accountable forms of communication forbidden. Samsung allegedly feared lawsuits and subpoenas as a result of the fires, leading to the drastic restrictions on staff.

Fires in the replacement units didn't appear to be limited to units charging, with most of the reported fires happening during normal use, or when powered off completely in the case of the evacuated flight on a runway in Kentucky.

Samsung drew complaints from the CPSC in how it handled the initial "voluntary recall" of the device. Samsung reports that it is "fully cooperating" with the CPSC at this time to work out what happened, and to ensure that it doesn't happen again in other devices.

AppleInsider has learned that unreturned Galaxy Note 7 devices are still causing fires, with a CPSC employee telling us that there have been "more than 10" fires since the full recall, all caused by hold-outs refusing to return the devices.