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People aboard a Southwest Airlines flight in the United States were forced to evacuate after a passenger's smartphone battery caught fire and damaged a seat. The Boeing 737-700 was preparing for take-off in Denver, Colorado, on Friday, when the incident was reported, forcing all 108 passengers to deboard immediately.
Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration and the airline said that passengers in the back seats of the plane fled with the help of rear emergency slides. Those in the front seats had to reportedly use the front door via the jet bridge to get out of the aeroplane.
A passengers cellphone caught on fire after boarding a Southwest Airlines flight pic.twitter.com/Epit1PGV62
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In its statement, the Dallas-based airline said the preliminary reports in the incident stated that one of the passengers onboard suffered a minor injury during the evacuation process. The person, whose phone caught fire, was being treated for the burns.
Acting swiftly on the matter, the crew members extinguished the seat fire.
Due to the inconvenience caused to the passengers, the airline said they worked to accommodate them on another flight so that they could reach their destination on time.
"Southwest's customer care team is working to accommodate the passengers on another aircraft to their original destination of Houston... Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees," an airline spokesperson said.
The airline said the reason behind the incident currently "remains under investigation."
On the other hand, the Federal Aviation Administration added it was looking into the matter and would investigate how the smartphone caught fire.
Due to the incident, the flight got delayed for three hours before reaching its destination at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, data from FlightAware showed.