(Newswire.net — June 3, 2017) — A JetBlue Airbus A321, with 158 passengers and crew on board, was forced to make an emergency landing in Michigan after passengers and the flight crew had detected smoke and burning plastic odor in the cabin.
The smoke was noticed rising from an overhead baggage compartment. “I was really scared” said Kailey Honniball, 18, explaining the moment she realized something was not right, she told CNN.
Reportedly, after about two and a half hours into the flight, Honniball heard a message over the PA system: “Sounds like fire in 25!”
The Airbus A321 landed safely at the Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at around 8pm local time Tuesday. After a delay, the JetBlue plane landed safely in San Francisco.
In a statement to KPIX, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the culprit for the smoke in the cabin was a notebook lithium battery that spontaneously caught on fire.
Lithium batteries have recently been under scrutiny for unexpectedly catching fire in some devices. The FAA reported 12 fire-related incidents on flights caused by lithium batteries. The incidents were registered from January until June this year, triggering a decision to ban laptops from cabin.
Last year, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 phones were banned from all flights after the company had discovered that its faulty lithium batteries could overheat and catch fire.
Fearing from terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March banned large electronics devices on flights from eight Middle Eastern and North African countries.
The DHS has been considering broadening the restrictions on all international flights in and out of the United States. “There’s a real threat,” DHS Secretary John Kelly said, according to WCBS.