Lithium battery incident on an American Airlines flight 2045

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The flight was evacuated on the apron at San Francisco International Airport before departure.

The lithium battery in a carry-on bag overheated and began emitting smoke.


Thankfully with no fatalities the Aviation Safety Network reported

On 12 July 2024, American Airlines Flight AA2045, an Airbus A321-231 scheduled to operate a flight from San Francisco International Airport (SFO/KSFO) to Miami International Airport (MIA/KMIA) had to be evacuated while still standing at Gate B27 as the crew reported smoke coming from a passenger's bag.

American Airlines released the following statement:

"During boarding of American Airlines flight 2045 with service from San Fransisco (SFO) to Miami (MIA), smoke was reported from inside a customer's bag.

The bag was quickly removed by our crew members and all customers exited the aircraft.

We thank our crew members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience."

An evacuation of the aircraft was initiated after the lithium-ion battery of a laptop in a carry-on bag suffered a thermal runaway and began emitting smoke.

However, the evacuation of the aircraft was significantly hampered as many passengers attempted to leave the aircraft with their cabin baggage, with some passengers arguing with the cabin crew.

Three individuals were injured in the evacuation process, which took place using both the jetway as well as deployed emergency exit slides.

At least three people were injured while evacuating the plane. The injuries were minor, according to SFO authorities.

Thermal runaways

Thermal runaway is a phenomenon that could occur with lithium-ion batteries within modern electronic devices, wherein a single cell (due to reasons such as high temperature) could ignite, which then triggers a chain reaction with other cells within the batteries resulting in smoke or fires.

Location: San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Francisco, CA 94128, USA

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