A smartphone caught fire in the cabin of an Alaska Airlines flight that landed in Seattle last night. Passengers on the plane were forced to evacuate as soon as the fire was discovered. According to a spokesperson for the Port of Seattle, the smartphone was a Galaxy A21. 

© Samsung

“After much digging, I can tell you that the phone was burned beyond recognition,” Cooper said in an email to The Seattle Times. “However, during an interview with one of our Port of Seattle Police officers, the passenger volunteered the phone was a Samsung Galaxy A21. Again, we could not confirm it by looking at the remains of the device.”

There was enough smoke and fire in the flight that the flight crew had to initiate an emergency evacuation. The cause for the smartphone bursting is not known, however, it could be possible that the pressurisation in the cabin may have caused the lithium-ion battery to explode. 

Just talked with a passenger on Alaska Airlines flight 751, where a fire broke out in the plane after landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. A passenger’s cell phone caught on fire, an Alaska Airlines official tells @KIRO7Seattle . We’re live at SeaTac at 11. pic.twitter.com/qeNHq4g17Z

The incident happened right after the flight landed in Seattle where the phone caused a small fire in the plane. The flight crew had to use fire extinguishers to contain the fire and evacuated the plane soon after via the evacuation slides. The passengers were evacuated “due to hazy conditions inside the cabin.” One of the passengers on the plane described the smoke as if it was coming out of a smoke machine.

© Unsplash/miguel-angel-sanz

The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport said in a tweet that passengers from the plane were transported to a bus terminal. Some passengers have reportedly suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scrapes. As of now, there have been no serious injuries reported and it has not affected airport operations.  

This particular situation may remind people of the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco where devices were unexpectedly exploding all over the world. The incident forced the company to cancel the phone as it was deemed unsafe by most airlines. Samsung later found out that the explosions were caused due to overheating and faulty batteries.  

Source: The Seattle Times

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