Samsung Galaxy A21 catches fire in airplane, causing mass evacuation

After a brief break from the previously rampant tales of Galaxy S7's catching fire, not unaccompanied by the occasional self-combusting iPhone or iPhone accessory wreaking havoc on unsuspecting users, we've finally got another one on our hands.

It seems that blazing smartphone disasters are making a comeback, and it's a big one this time. The Seattle Times reported yesterday that another blazing Samsung phone came into the spotlight for spontaneously combusting, thankfully with short-lasting consequences. This time the culprit wasn't the notorious S7 Edge, but the slightly more modern Samsung Galaxy A21, which was released just last year.

The incident happened at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Monday, August 24. A man had boarded Flight 751, an Alaska Airlines plane along with everyone else, anticipating an eventless flight to Seattle from New Orleans. 

However, before the plane had a chance to take off, his Samsung phone inexplicably caught on fire, assumedly caused by a defective battery malfunction. 

The crew on the plane rushed to the rescue, managing to put out the flames with a battery containment bag, and extinguish the burning phone. However, the butchered device continued to smoke profusely, eventually causing the entire airplane of 128 passenger and 6 crew members to be temporarily evacuated to the airport terminal.

In the aftermath of the fire, the phone itself was mangled and melted so badly that it was impossible to tell its make and model. Fortunately, only the smartphone suffered irreparable damage, with no lasting consequences to the airplane itself, or the airport operations—save for a delayed flight—and no injuries resulting from it.

“However, during an interview with one of our Port of Seattle Police officers, the passenger volunteered the phone was a Samsung Galaxy A21. Again, we could not confirm it by looking at the remains of the device.”