Nightmare aboard Delta Boeing 757 after passenger's rechargeable battery burst into flames
The unidentified passenger's device caught fire while on Delta Flight 1334, a Boeing 757 traveling from Atlanta, Georgia, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Monday.
Crew was able to extinguish the fire and keep all 185 passengers and six crew members safe, but the pilots still made an emergency landing in Fort Myers 'out of an abundance of caution' due to the 'residual smoke' left behind.
'Flight attendants worked quickly to extinguish a probable burning personal battery belonging to a customer while pilots followed procedures to safely divert the flight,' Delta told Daily Mail in a statement.
'We appreciate the quick work and actions by our people to follow their training, and we apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels.'
The aircraft is being evaluated, and passengers are being rerouted to their destination.
Video from inside the cabin showed a load of firefighters come onboard to check everything out before the passengers were allowed to offload.
'We have to wait for the fire department to clear the plane,' passenger, D'Andra, said in a TikTok.
D'Andra said she was sleeping when the flames broke out, but was awoken by someone screaming: 'Fire! Fire! Fire!'
'I turn around it's pure smoke,' she said in a follow-up video. 'They had to use a fire extinguisher, it was a whole mess.'
It is unclear what caused the personal battery to catch fire.
Portable chargers contain lithium batteries and are allowed in passengers' carry-on luggage.
The devices can experience thermal runaway, when the battery overheats rapidly and can cause a fire or explosion.
Passengers are limited to two grams of lithium per battery and can have up to four devices with these batteries onboard.
'These incidents are on the rise, but the good news is they are largely preventable,' Jeff Marootian, a safety expert, told 11 Alive.
'Passengers should be aware of what they're packing, especially when it comes to lithium-ion battery-powered devices.'
Marootian advises fliers to make sure to follow directions and keep these batteries in carry-on bags only.
'It's critical to keep these devices within arm's reach. If a fire were to happen in checked luggage, the outcome could be very different.
'Thankfully, in today's situation, the flight crew knew how to respond, and a major catastrophe was averted.'
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