MIAMI — Passengers on a flight from California landed in South Florida on Saturday morning after they were told to evacuate the plane the day before when a fire coming from a laptop bag filled the aircraft’s cabin with smoke.
American Airlines Flight 2045 was preparing to fly from San Francisco International Airport to Miami International Airport around noon Friday, according to flight records obtained by CBS News Bay Area.
However, as the Airbus A321 was about to pull away from the gate, multiple reports on social media said the plane cabin began to fill with smoke, forcing an emergency evacuation of the aircraft.
American Airlines later confirmed that crew members reported a fire in the back of the plane when they called in a mayday, with the smoke originating from a passenger’s laptop bag.
“The bag was quickly removed by our crew members and all customers exited the aircraft,” the airline statement read. “We thank our crew members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
The flight was delayed by about 11 hours after evacuation, departing around 11:45 p.m. from SFO and landing at MIA just before 8:50 a.m. Saturday.
CBS News Miami spoke with a family on that flight, who said they were sitting by the laptop that lit on fire inside of a backpack and people were rushing to get out.
“It was getting so dense [with] smoke in the back of the cabin that we couldn’t really breathe,” said passenger Oliver Jankai. “So, I just decided on my own to open the door.”
The family added that they took the backpack and tried to throw it out since the smoke kept getting thicker.
“It was still a little bit on fire, so we tried to step it out,” Jankai continued. “[I] tried to throw it out, [a flight crewmember] said ‘No, don’t throw it out.’ My son dropped it because he took it before and then I said ‘No, okay.’ And then, I shoot it out the plane.”
Officials said three people suffered minor injuries during the incident with one passenger requiring transport for treatment. It’s unclear if they were able to make it to the rebooked flight.
The FAA is currently investigating the circumstances of the incident.
By HUNTER GEISEL and STEVE MAUGERI/CBS News