Flight evacuated after a passenger's Samsung smartphone catches fire
An Alaska Airlines plane, flying from New Orleans to Seattle, was reportedly evacuated on an emergency basis after a Samsung Galaxy A21 caught fire inside the flight's cabin. The crew had to use battery containment bags and fire extinguishers to control the fire. However, smoke forced the deployment of evacuation slides. The incident took place after the plane had landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
"After much digging, I can tell you that the phone was burned beyond recognition," Perry Cooper, a spokesperson for the Port of Seattle, said in an email to The Seattle Times. "However, during an interview with one of our Port of Seattle Police officers, the passenger volunteered the phone was a Samsung Galaxy A21." The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
In 2016, many incidents had surfaced where the Samsung Galaxy Note7 had caught fire or exploded in planes. This resulted in almost every airline imposing a ban on the handset and passengers were not allowed to carry the Note7 in any form on the flight. Samsung had to eventually recall all the Note7 units and refund all the customers in full.
As far as its specifications are concerned, the Samsung Galaxy A21, which debuted in April last year, features a punch-hole design with a prominent bottom bezel and a plastic body. The handset bears a 6.5-inch HD+ (720x1600 pixels) IPS LCD screen with an aspect ratio of 20:9. On the rear, it has a quad camera unit and a physical fingerprint reader.
The Samsung Galaxy A21 comes with a quad rear camera unit comprising a 16MP (f/1.8) primary sensor, an 8MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide lens, a 2MP (f/2.4) macro snapper, and a 2MP (f/2.4) depth sensor. For selfies, it has a 13MP (f/2.0) front-facing camera.
The Samsung Galaxy A21 is powered by a MediaTek Helio P35 chipset, paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Under the hood, it runs on Android 10-based One UI 2.0 and packs a 4,000mAh battery with 15W fast-charging support. For connectivity, the device offers support for dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, a headphone jack, and a Type-C port.
