Alaska Airlines Passenger's Phone Catches Fire on Board Plane, Sparking Evacuation

An Alaska Airlines Flight evacuated all of the passengers onboard after landing on Monday evening due to a fire caused by a cell phone in the plane's cargo hold.

The Port of Seattle Fire Department (POSFD) responded to reports of a fire on the Alaska Airlines's flight at around 8:30 p.m. on Monday after the aircraft landed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington.

An Alaska Airlines spokesperson told Newsweek that the blaze broke out on the plane "shortly after landing" when a passenger's phone caught on fire, prompting everyone onboard to be evacuated once it landed at the Seattle airport.

"The crew acted swiftly using fire extinguishers and a battery containment bag to control the fire and deployed the evacuation slides due to hazy conditions in the cabin," the Alaska Airlines spokesperson said. "All guests exited the aircraft. Medics met the aircraft to attend to guests and crew."

In total, 128 passengers and six crew members were evacuated from the plane on Monday evening, while the plane was towed to the gate without any impact on aircraft operations.

The incident was confirmed by the airport in a series of tweets at around 10:00 p.m. local time in Seattle, but neither the facility or the airline have elaborated on what caused the cell phone to catch fire.

"Earlier this evening, POSFD responded to a report of a fire in the cargo hold of Alaska Airlines Flight 751. Upon arrival, the fire was contained and passengers and crew were evacuated from the aircraft," the airport wrote.

"Passengers were transported by bus to the terminal, some with minor injuries," the facility tweeted, before clarifying that the "incident occurred in the aircraft cabin. Only minor scrapes and bruises were reported."

Monday's incident is not the first time a cell phone has caused a blaze aboard an aircraft, as an evacuation was prompted on a Ryanair flight in 2018 preparing to leave Barcelona after a phone caught fire.

The incident occurred in Barcelona in August 2018 as the Ryanair flight was preparing to leave for Ibiza, with the fire put out with water by a passenger after being sparked by a portable battery pack.

Blazes have also been started at airports in other unusual circumstances, as in Pakistan in 2018 a man set fire to the contents of his own luggage after his flight was delayed due to bad weather over the Islamabad Airport.

After the Pakistan International Airlines flight scheduled to travel to Gilgit was delayed and then cancelled, a man was filmed venting his fury by igniting a piece of clothing from his bag, before using it to set a pile of his clothes alight.