More than 100 passengers were evacuated from a parked Southwest plane after a traveller’s phone caught fire, causing a seat to go up in flames.
The incident occurred on November 15 when Southwest Airlines Flight 3316 was parked at the gate at Denver International Airport.
The airline had already boarded 108 passengers onto the Boeing 737-700 when a passenger’s cell phone battery caught on fire.
This led to one of the plane’s seats also catching alight before passengers rushed off the plane through rear emergency slides and the front door, the Dallas-based airline said in a statement.
One passenger was injured during the evacuation while the passenger whose phone ignited the blaze had to be treated by local authorities for burns on their hand.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees. The incident remains under investigation,” an airline spokesperson said.
They added that the crew successfully extinguished the fire.
Passenger Jennifer Rodgers, who later arrived in Texas following delays from the evacuation, told CBS News: “Everybody saw the smoke, because it kind of filled the back of the cabin. And then somebody screamed ‘Fire.'”
Traveller, Seth Anderson, said: "It must have been burning pretty rapidly, because there was a pause, and then there was again 'Fire! Fire!' And then all of a sudden everybody just started getting up, and that's when all the panicking started on the plane.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it would investigate the incident.
In response to the incident, the aviation agency later wrote on X that the safest way to travel with cell phones is to carry them with you inside the cabin.
The FAA said: “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.”
Since 2006, there have been over 500 verified incidents on flights involving lithium batteries carried as cargo or baggage, according to FAA data, with dozens occurring since the start of 2024.
