Cellphone Fire Causes Panic on Flight

A flight attendant waits to greet passengers aboard a Ryanair plane at the airport in Valencia on July 25, 2018. Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Images

Passengers fled from a plane in Spain after a cellphone exploded and ignited just before takeoff on July 31.

Amateur video footage from the airport tarmac shows passengers sliding down an inflatable slide and running away from a RyanAir plane at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport. Some are holding their carry-on luggage. The video clip was posted to Cabin Crew Club on Twitter. Video footage from anthcarrio taken from inside the plane shows a device engulfed in flames on the floor as people walk past it in a panic. Then it appears to be extinguished and smoking. The plane was destined for Ibiza.

“We were just over 100 feet away from the [gate] when the device exploded and smoke began to come out,” said a passenger whose identity was not revealed, via The Sun. “Fortunately I was in the first row and I opened the emergency door before the pilot activated the chute.”

The cellphone supposedly belonged to a passenger from New Zealand and it was in a suitcase in the overhead storage compartment when it exploded.

“The passengers of a flight from Barcelona to Ibiza were evacuated in an emergency at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport because of a fire in a mobile phone that was being charged with an external battery,” reads the statement, obtained by The Sun. “All the passengers were evacuated from the aircraft in a safe way to the terminal and the cabin crew took charge of the device.

“looks like it harfer to get to ibiza then we thought ive never seen so many people so scared in there life! portable charger blew up in the same row as I was sitting everyone tries to run and all I do was put it out with water ? luckily it was just before taking off come on people how can no one else think of doing that fire across the whole plane width of the planeemergency exits are pre fun when there’s not a real emergency,” wrote anthcarrio.

From NTD.tv