A passenger's smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy A21 , caught fire just as an Alaska Airlines plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday night. The unexpected situation forced the activation of the emergency protocols, so the aircraft was evacuated immediately.
According to The Seattle Times, the phone burned beyond recognition , so the airport authorities could not identify the make and model of the device. However, they indicated that the owner of the same told the police officers that it was a Samsung Galaxy A21.
Alaska Airlines spokesman Ray Lane told The Associated Press that the phone “overheated and started to spark” after the flight from New Orleans landed around 08:30 pm local time (GMT-7). It was precisely at that moment that the crew tried to take action.
According to Lane's account, they first used fire extinguishers and a battery containment bag to prevent the smoke from the Samsung Galaxy A21 from continuing to spread inside the plane. However, shortly after arriving at the terminal for the normal descent of the passengers, the crew decided to activate the evacuation slides.
Samsung Galaxy A21 on fire and the slides
Image: Samsung This last measure was taken due to the “cloud” of smoke that had caused the fire of the telephone inside the plane. According to Line, the passengers slid down the slides and were taken inside the terminal. Most had no problems, but two of the 129 who traveled were transferred to a hospital.
At the moment it is not clear what was the reason for the fire of the Samsung Galaxy A21. Over the last few years, several isolated incidents have been detected with mobile devices of different brands. These, for one reason and another, ended up catching fire.
The best known is perhaps that of Samsung itself. In September 2016, the South Korean company recalled the Galaxy Note 7 from around the world due to a problem related to the phone's battery. It could reportedly explode while charging.
