Southwest passengers evacuate smoke-filled plane after smartphone, seat bursts into flames

Not what they meant by “hot” phone.

Passengers were forced to evacuate a Southwest Airlines plane after a phone battery caught fire while the plane was waiting to take off at Denver International Airport in Colorado.

“Everybody saw the smoke because it filled the back of the cabin,” passenger Jennifer Rodgers said recalling the incident, CBS News reported. “And then someone yelled ‘Fire’.”

The incident occurred on Friday while Rodgers and 107 other passengers were aboard flight SA 3316, while it was parked at the gate, waiting to fly to Houston, Texas.

According to eyewitnesses, a passenger’s smartphone began smoking, filling the cabin with acrid fumes and causing a seat to catch fire, CNN reported.

Passengers were then ordered to evacuate with flyers at the front coming out through the bridge, while those at the back of the plane slid down the emergency chute to safety, as seen in dramatic video footage.

Meanwhile, crew members used a fire extinguisher to put out the flaming sky seat, Fox News reported.

Flywitness Jaquetta Anderson recounted the chaotic scene.

“There’s nowhere to go because they were coming out the back of the plane. And so I was pushed a little bit,” she said. “People were shouting leave your things. But I actually had two dogs with me and I wasn’t going to leave them.”

Miraculously, only two passengers were injured during the mad dash: One passenger was reportedly injured during the evacuation, while the passenger whose phone caught fire had to be treated for burns to his hand, the airline said in a statement.

The cargo flight crashed three hours later at its destination at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, the incident is currently under investigation, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Unfortunately, batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries, have become a blight on the friendly skies of late.

Last month, plane passengers in China were left fearing for their lives after an airport bridge filled with smoke after a faulty power bank caught fire.

Such fires usually occur when lithium-ion batteries overheat and ignite.

In fact, due to the flammability of power banks, airlines only allow them to be packed in carry-on bags, not in checked bags, for fear of starting fires in the cargo hold.