Over 100 passengers were evacuated from a parked Southwest plane after a traveller’s phone caught fire, causing a seat to also go up in flames.
Southwest Airlines Flight 3316 was parked at the gate at Denver International Airport on Friday 15 November and was getting ready to depart when the incident occurred.
The airline had already boarded 108 passengers onto the Boeing 737-700 when a passenger’s cell phone battery caught on fire. This lead to one of the plane’s seats also catching alight, the airline said in a statement to CNN.
Passengers at the rear of the plane evacuated using emergency slides, while those seated toward the front left through the front door via the jet bridge, the FAA said.
Preliminary reports show that one passenger sustained a minor injury during the evacuation and the passenger whose phone caught on fire was being treated for burns, the airline said in their statement.
Crew members were able to extinguish the fire that had ignited on the seat.
“Southwest’s customer care team is working to accommodate the passengers on another aircraft to their original destination of Houston,” an airline spokesperson said on Friday.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees. The incident remains under investigation.”
The incident caused chaos as passengers scrambled to deplane while smoke started to fill the cabin.
“It must have been burning pretty rapidly, because there was a pause, and then there was again ‘Fire! Fire!’” passenger Seth Anderson told CBS.
“And then all of a sudden everybody just started getting up, and that’s when all the panicking started on the plane.”
The FAA said it will investigate the incident.
The aviation agency later wrote on X that despite this incident, the safest way to travel with cell phones is to carry them with you inside the cabin.
“Lithium ion-powered devices, like cell phones and power banks, are safest with you inside the aircraft cabin as crew are trained to quickly address events of smoke and fire,” the FAA wrote in response to the incident.
Since 2006, there have been 504 verified incidents on flights involving lithium batteries causing smoke, fire or extreme heat, with 32 incidents occurring so far in 2024, the FAA’s data shows.
Most of these, have come from a chargeable battery pack (206 occurrences), while 104 relate to vapes and e-cigarettes. Only 68 incidents have related to phones.
The Independent has contacted Southwest for comment.
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast