A plane was urgently evacuated Friday in San Francisco when a passenger's laptop battery caught fire shortly before takeoff.
“It smelled like burning cables. [La fumée est devenue si intense que] “We thought we were going to pass out,” said Jan Jancay, who was traveling with his father on the American Airlines Airbus A321 at the time of the crash, according to ABC News.
The duo said they felt the heat on Friday when the battery on the laptop of the passenger behind them caught fire while the device was stored in a bag directly under their seat.
The plane had not yet taken off for Miami, and was still attached to the runway of San Francisco International Airport, according to American media.
However, the two passengers had to quickly unbuckle their seatbelts to leave the plane when they saw a “huge flame,” as smoke quickly filled the cabin, Jan Jancay told ABC News.
His father allegedly grabbed the burning bag during the commotion to throw it out the emergency exit, where several other passengers had already been evacuated via emergency slides, according to his testimony.
In a video circulating on X, passengers can be seen urging the pilot and crew to leave the cabin and leave their bags behind.
According to San Francisco International Airport, three people were reported to have suffered minor injuries during the evacuation, with one person being transported to a local hospital, according to an update from the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) on Friday evening.
The fire service confirmed the nature of the fire, explaining that the fire had already been extinguished upon arrival at the scene.
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