British Airways A388 over Atlantic on Jan 21st 2019, LiOn battery suffers thermal runaway

Last Update: January 22, 2019 / 21:43:12 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 21, 2019

Classification
Incident

Airline
British Airways

Flight number
BA-208

Departure
Miami, United States

Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom

Aircraft Registration
G-XLEK

Aircraft Type
Airbus A380-800

ICAO Type Designator
A388

A British Airways Airbus A380-800, registration G-XLEK performing flight BA-208 (dep Jan 20th) from Miami,FL (USA) to London Heathrow,EN (UK), was enroute over the Atlantic Ocean when a passenger travelling on the upper deck and carrying his mobile phone, a Samsung Note 4, in a pocket of his shirt, felt his smartphone was becoming hot, took it out of the pocket, opened the battery cover and saw the battery catching fire. The passenger dropped smartphone and battery onto the floor, where the battery burned into the carpet. Thick smoke developed. The passenger poured some Coke over the smartphone, cabin crew quickly arrived and put the battery into a bucket of water, then secured it in a secure container. The crew continued to London for a safe landing.

The aircraft remained on the ground in London for about 4:50 hours, then departed for flight BA-209 to San Francisco.

Two passengers reported independently about the occurrence, each observed different details of the summarizing narrative above.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 21, 2019

Classification
Incident

Airline
British Airways

Flight number
BA-208

Departure
Miami, United States

Destination
London Heathrow, United Kingdom

Aircraft Registration
G-XLEK

Aircraft Type
Airbus A380-800

ICAO Type Designator
A388

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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