An Alaska Airlines flight was evacuated on Monday night after a Samsung Galaxy A21 smartphone caught fire while the plane was landing.
The Seattle Times reports that an email from a Port of Seattle spokesperson said that the phone was “burned beyond recognition,” but the passenger who owned the device provided details on the model. “We could not confirm it by looking at the remains of the device,” said the spokesperson.
The flight crew put out the fire by using a battery containment bag, but smoke from the device forced the deployment of the evacuation slides. The smartphone did not catch fire until the flight had landed at the Seattle-Tacoma airport. There were no serious injuries among the 128 passengers and six crew members.
A passenger who was on the flight tweeted that the burning smartphone was “like a smoke machine.”
Samsung had been forced to recall its Galaxy Note 7 back in 2016, due to exploding batteries. However, there is no evidence as yet that the Galaxy A21 is facing a similar widespread issue with its battery.
(Photo credit: @dave_lickorish)