At least four people suffered burns after a laptop’s battery caught fire onboard an American Airlines flight, several media outlets reported.
The incident happened on American Airlines flight 2398 between Atlanta (ATL) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) on August 21, 2026.
At least one of the passengers affected required medical attention after the aircraft landed in Texas, although the burns did not require hospitalization.
The pilots reported to air traffic control (ATC) that smoke had been detected at the back of the cabin and that cabin crew managed to put out the fire. Upon landing without further incident, the aircraft, an Airbus A321, was able to taxi to its assigned gate, where medical staff were waiting to take care of the affected passengers.
While on this occasion, the aircraft was able to land, as originally planned, at Dallas-Fort-Worth, this incident underscores the growing concern in the industry about the danger posed by lithium batteries, which can on occasion overheat and start fires.
In January 2025, a power bank fire was found to be the behind the fire that destroyed an Air Busan A321 on the ground, from which all passengers and crew could, fortunately, be evacuated. In 2025 alone, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recorded 97 incidents involving lithium battery devices in the United States.
This increasing number of incidents prompted International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to adopt new rules in March 2026, which limited the number of power banks allowed in the cabin to two per passenger.
Some individual airlines, however, have implemented stricter limits on the number of power banks allowed in the cabin, such as Southwest Airlines, which limits the number to one per person, or have fully banned their use onboard, as is the case of numerous airlines in Asia and the Middle East.