2024-10 · NASA ASRS report 2177367
Flight attendants reported a passenger's phone went under a seat and began to smoke. Flight attendants retrieved phone and secured it inside a thermal containment bag.
While serving arrival breakfast I saw Person A with a fire extinguisher. At the same moment Person B said out loud smoke; I turned looked down right aisle saw light haze grey. Immediately went to Person A what is the situation. Passenger phone went under seat; seat was moved; smoke started immediately. Asked what she needed another extinguisher one had not worked. Retrieved extinguisher than called cockpit to advise of situation. Then went to aft aircraft the smoke seemed to be thickening and the smell was now in my cabin area. Went to back asked for an extinguisher and we needed containment bag.Went again to update cockpit Person A thought she could see the phone I was relaying to cockpit at the same moment Person B said he could get the phone. Person B put on gloves and retrieved the phone placed in bag and sealed closed. Went on link to verify where containment bag storage for remainder of flight the most aft rear lavatory. Was placed by 4R lavatory. None of us could feel any heat from the seat. However; after 15 minutes the smell was still very strong. All air vents opened; we placed wet towels around area; checked on passengers in area; offered wet towels to put over mouth and nose if wanted.
I was working the forward cabin during the 2nd service; the cabin lights were on. Myself and the Purser were in the forward galley when the galley FA suddenly said he could see smoke towards the rear of the forward cabin.I retrieved a water extinguisher from the compartment by door 1L and went to the seat where the smoke was coming from. The passenger had vacated the seat. The FA who had been there first; I think was having trouble with the extinguisher they were trying to use; so I went by her and started to use my water extinguisher; to spray it at the floor area where I could see the smoke coming from. However; the water that was coming from my extinguisher did not appear to have much oomph to it - not like the forceful jet that usually comes from the one we use in training; more of a trickle. Is this right; that the ones onboard have a much less powerful jet than the practice ones we use at training?Also; afterwards; when I was going to turn the handle of the extinguisher to the off position to stow it away; the handle completely popped off; ejecting a small canister and spring - again is that normal? It did it on a 2nd water extinguisher too.In addition to the above; while attempting to use the water extinguisher; I became conscious of the fact that I didn't actually know where the item was that was causing the smoke - I couldn't see it - and was therefore; while attempting to act quickly; aiming the water at the smoke I could see; rather than at the actual source of the smoke; i.e.; the mobile phone under the seat. I realized this was wrong and hence stopped to investigate more. By this time the other FA had now got a halon extinguisher; knew where the phone was located under the seat; and was able to spray the extinguisher onto it.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.