Most decent (read: non-american) long haul airlines and even some 737 have USB sockets at each seat for charging devices, what effect would this have in the air?
Maybe "fry" was the wrong word to use here. The USB device mentioned in the article doesn't work after it kills the device so the components actually don't get too hot after the initial surge.
Also any battery on your device is also a potential fire hazard. There are procedures in place to deal with such cases.