A pyrotechnic explosion. REUTERS/Patrick T. Fallon

Samsung just can't catch a break.

A month ago, the South Korean electronics company was in a pretty bad place.

It had been forced to initiate a global recall of its new flagship phone, the Galaxy Note 7, because dozens of customers' devices had exploded, reportedly injuring children, destroying cars, and gutting hotel rooms.

Compounding matters, the billion-dollar disaster came as the company's archrival, Apple, launched its latest competing premium smartphone, the iPhone 7.

This was, I wrote at the time, "Samsung's nightmare scenario."

Well, now it has got even worse.

Replacement devices may also be affected

Samsung has been issuing replacement devices to customers who bought Galaxy Note 7 phones that the company said had fixed the faulty-battery problem.

But a Note 7 recently started smoking uncontrollably on a flight before takeoff, forcing the cabin crew to evacuate the plane — and the family that owned it said it was a replacement device, according to a report from Reuters.

Samsung gave Business Insider the following statement, saying it needed more information before it could comment further: "Until we are able to retrieve the device, we cannot confirm that this incident involves the new Note 7. We are working with the authorities and Southwest now to recover the device and confirm the cause. Once we have examined the device, we will have more information to share."

But the tech site The Verge ran the IMEI code of the phone in question through Samsung's checker, which said the phone should not have been affected by the recall, and the phone's packaging also indicated it was a replacement device.

If this is a replacement device that has been affected by the battery fault, then this is a screwup of colossal proportions.

One recall is costing Samsung billions and making it the butt of jokes; a second recall so soon after the first could cause massive, long-term damage to the company's brand.

Airlines are already warning passengers not to use Note 7 devices during flights; if Samsung can't be trusted to fix catastrophic (and potentially fatal) problems, it's not inconceivable that some airlines might choose to ban the brand's device altogether.

And that's not the only problem.

An exploded Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (not the one from the plane). Baidu/Mr. Ni66666

Google might be about to eat Samsung's dinner

This week, Google announced its Pixel smartphone.

It's a sleek, premium device clearly intended to go head-to-head with other handset manufacturers at the high end of the market, like Apple — and Samsung.

The launch was peppered with sly digs and jokes at Apple's expense, on everything from the camera bump on the iPhone 7 to its lack of headphone jack. And at £599 in the UK for the smaller, 32 GB model, it will have the same base price point as Apple's device.

But Samsung might prove the most fertile ground for Google to steal customers from.

After all, switching from one mobile platform (iOS) to another (Android) is a pretty big deal. You need to port over all your data, and there's no guarantee you'll get all the apps you want. But Samsung customers are already using Android, and they're already used to paying high prices for a premium device.

If you've historically been a Samsung customer, and you're in the market for a new phone, what are you going to do? Go for the phone that's exploding left, right, and centre — or the flashy new Google phone that's running the same underlying software?

Android smartphone makers have always struggled to differentiate themselves from their competitors, as they're all running the same operating system.

For Samsung's Galaxy line, the answer has historically been to market them as high-end, reliable devices — the iPhone for people who don't want an iPhone. But with Google barging into the space, and its exploding-phone issue potentially lingering, it could be a whole lot harder to sell to customers.