A laptop ignited a small fire on an American Airlines flight last Friday, just before the plane departed from the gate in San Francisco. The crew tried to evacuate the Airbus A321 calmly, but the cabin filled with smoke and chaos ensued as passengers pushed and shoved to reach the exits. One passenger threw the burning laptop onto the tarmac.
The fire started when a laptop in a bag stowed under a seat caught fire. Oliver Jankai, who sat in that seat, reported smelling something burning just before the blaze. The evacuation turned into a stampede, with passengers ignoring instructions and taking their belongings with them, causing panic and further chaos.
As smoke filled the back of the cabin, Jankai searched for a fire extinguisher but couldn’t find one. His son Jan opened an emergency exit for fresh air, and Jankai threw the burning bag out of the plane. He explained to WFOR, “It was still a little bit on fire, so we tried to step it out. I tried to throw it out, [a flight crewmember] said ‘No, don’t throw it out.’ My son dropped it because he took it before and then I said ‘No, okay.’ And then, I shot it out the plane.”
All passengers on the American Airlines flight to Miami were rescheduled for another flight the next day. Fortunately, nobody was injured despite the chaotic evacuation. Passengers stopping in the aisle to grab items from overhead bins caused a significant delay in evacuation efforts.
A well-executed evacuation was seen with Japan Airlines Flight 516 in January, when an Airbus A350 collided with a Japanese Coast Guard plane at Haneda Airport. All 367 passengers and 12 crew members exited the plane in 18 minutes as a fire consumed the airliner.