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American Airlines flight AA2045 from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Miami International Airport (MIA) was forced to evacuate yesterday after a passenger’s laptop caught fire and filled the cabin with smoke. Three people suffered minor injuries during the evacuation of the Airbus A321 aircraft.
Apparently an electronic device caught fire and the cabin filled with smoke. It was desperate until someone opened the middle door and we were able to escape as we were all blocked in the hallway. Some people slightly injured
— Mati Cesario (@Maticesss) July 12, 2024
The flight had not even finished boarding when the laptop started smoking. Emergency slides were deployed and passengers scrambled out onto the apron (many of them with their carry-on belongings).
American Airlines released the following statement:
During boarding of American Airlines flight 2045 with service from San Francisco (SFO) to Miami (MIA), smoke was reported from inside a customer’s bag. The bag was quickly removed by our crew members and all customers exited the aircraft. We thank our crew members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
This scary incident luckily happened while the aircraft was parked and aside from a few minor injuries suffered on the slides, everyone made it out okay. Laptops, cell phones, and other devices are powered by lithium batteries. These have the potential to overheat (especially when damaged). This is what flight attendants are talking about when they make the announcements not to move seats if a device is dropped as its battery may become damaged and then pose a fire hazard. The fire was extinguished before firefighters reached the aircraft. The flight is delayed around 11 hours and scheduled to depart around the time of this article being written.
Anthony’s Take: Thankfully, everyone made it out safely. Fire on an aircraft is scary, but what’s scarier is how selfish some of the passengers are as they are seen deplaning with their belongings. In the event of an emergency, leave everything behind. Taking your things can slow down others and mean the difference between life and death.
(Featured Image Credit: KGO.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
