A laptop battery fire caused a United Airlines A320-232 to make an emergency landing in Daytona Beach on Wednesday.
However, the flight, which originally departed from New Jersey, took off again just an hour later and reached its original destination of Nassau in the Bahamas. No one was injured.
Passenger Gary Siegel tweeted, “Very impressed with the way this entire flight crew handled the inflight emergency. Prepared and calm. Bravo.”
Website Flightrader24 showed UA1456 took off from Newark Liberty International Airport at 7:59am. The incident reportedly took place two hours into the flight. At around 10am the aircraft began to descend before landing at Daytona Beach, Florida, at 10:25.
After the A320 took off again, it reached its destination just two hours after its scheduled time of 10:37.
United Airlines said in a statement, “United Flight 1456, operating from Newark to Nassau, diverted to Daytona Beach due to an issue with a passenger’s backup laptop battery charger.
“Emergency personnel met the aircraft and customers remained on board prior to the aircraft departing for Nassau.
“We appreciate the quick work of our employees on board to keep our customers and fellow employees safe.”
One passenger took to Twitter to hail the professionalism of the flight crew.
@united ua1456 to nas safely on the ground in Daytona after a laptop battery caught fire in the main cabin. Very impressed with the way this entire flight crew handled the inflight emergency. Prepared and calm! Bravo!
— Gary Siegel (@siegelgaryl) February 26, 2020
Battery explosions and fires from an array of mobile devices such as iPads, mobiles and laptops have become an increasing problem.
In 2019, the US banned lithium batteries from being taken as cargo on passenger aircraft, and prohibited those items from being stored in checked luggage.
Increasingly, passengers are also forced to place mobile devices in separate trays when moving through security.
There has been 268 incidents involving lithium batteries reported to the FAA between 2006 and 2020.
