Aviation: E-cigarette causes hearth at 3,000 meters altitude | EUROtoday

One E-Cigarettes in hand baggage nearly brought about an incident with critical penalties on a flight from London Gatwick to Porto. The accountable authority GPIAAF in Lisbon stated the system caught hearth shortly after the Portuguese airline TAP aircraft took off. As smoke emerged from the overhead compartment, the plane instantly circled and landed safely again at Gatwick 14 minutes after take-off. The incident occurred on February 8, it stated.

As the official report reveals, the cabin crew seen a robust odor of burning within the rear of the Airbus A320 plane at an altitude of round 3,000 meters. Several apprehensive passengers then stood up and briefly blocked the aisle within the tense scenario. The crew nonetheless managed to achieve the burning hand baggage and extinguish the flames with a fireplace extinguisher.

Nobody was injured. After a security verify, the 180-seat aircraft with six crew members later continued the flight to Porto, in accordance with the report by GPIAAF, the authority liable for investigating air and rail accidents in Portugal. Portuguese media stated the incident underscored the dangers of lithium-ion batteries in onboard digital gadgets.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:260405-930-908849/1