Flight attendants ‘were not prepared’ for battery fire on Hawaii Flight 26, passenger says

Vancouver residents Michael and Casey Rebstock were enjoying the last half-hour of their first-class flight home to Portland International Airport from Hawaii Thursday night when a burning electronic device filled the cabin with acrid white smoke and panic.

“I smelled something burning,” Michael Rebstock told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “And my wife said, ‘Oh my God, there’s smoke coming out of your seat.’”

Seconds later, smoke was rising below him “like a campfire” as flight attendants scrambled to find a fire extinguisher and contain the burning tablet, the 57-year-old electrical engineer said.

The next day, the FAA announced that the smoke was coming from an iPad that had apparently caught fire on Hawaiian Airlines Flight 26, prompting an emergency response and medical intervention as soon as the plane landed around 9 p.m. The incident is the latest case of lithium-ion battery combustion in Portland. On September 12, nearly a dozen people were burned in their homes by e-scooter and e-bike batteries that sparked catastrophic fires, and in August, an e-scooter battery exploded, sparking a fire in a Northwest Portland apartment building.

No one had to be taken to hospital after Thursday’s incident, but Rebstock said he and his wife are experiencing lingering symptoms.

He said the fire broke out shortly after he adjusted his seat and apparently crushed an iPad that was stuck underneath it by a previous passenger, triggering a thermal runaway reaction in the device’s lithium-ion battery.

Rebstock believes the iPad was one of the complimentary devices Hawaiian Airlines provided in-flight to first-class passengers; spokesman Alex Da Silva told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the airline is “determining whether the iPad was part of the complimentary tablets we provide.”

As Michael and Casey Rebstock struggled to breathe and Michael suffered from nausea, confusion and dizziness, the acrid smoke put the plane’s crew in difficulty, she said.

“They had no idea where the fire extinguisher was,” said Casey Rebstock, 56, adding that she heard a flight attendant repeatedly ask another crew member where it was.

Casey estimated it took the crew five minutes to find him.

Meanwhile, other flight attendants tried to remove the molten iPad from the seat, but were unsuccessful. Another passenger eventually retrieved the burning device using a pair of metal serving tongs given to him by a flight attendant from the galley. Michael added that the crew never used the fire extinguisher after finding it.

“Most of the things that happened were suggested and driven by the passengers,” Casey said. “They were not prepared for this scenario.”

Da Silva said the airline apologizes to customers for the incident when asked by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“We train all our crew members to safely extinguish lithium battery fires,” he said. “And we were one of the first airlines to carry special fire-resistant bags and gloves.” Da Silva added that containment bags are the preferred method of fighting battery fires.

A training video created by the Federal Aviation Administration lists fire extinguishers as the first step in fighting a battery fire.

After the passenger removed the iPad from the seat with the service tongs, Michael said the flight attendants were ready with a fireproof bag to put the device in.

But with minutes left in the flight, the cabin was still filled with smoke from burned electronics until a passenger suggested increasing the airflow, Casey Rebstock said.

“That helped a little bit,” she said, adding that the crew also handed out COVID-type face masks and suggested passengers cover their faces with blankets.

When the plane finally landed in Portland, Michael was examined by a paramedic who found his blood pressure to be 180 over 105, well above his normal range. But he said he chose not to go to the hospital, even though he still suffers from persistent headaches, nausea and fatigue.

Rick Graves, a spokesman for Portland Fire & Rescue, which responded to the fire, said such symptoms are not unusual.

“All smoke contains toxins that are harmful to human health,” he said in an email. “In the event of a lithium-ion battery fire, the release of aerosolized hydrogen fluoride and other electrolytes can be very harmful if inhaled.”

But Michael Rebstock is still grateful that the situation is not worse.

“If this had happened a few hours earlier, we would have been in the middle of the ocean,” he said. “And that haunts me, because what would we have done?”

Michael said he hopes airlines will take note of the incident and make sure to check for vulnerable electronics between flights. He also hopes airlines will make sure their staff are prepared for battery fires, which the FAA says occurred on more than 40 passenger flights in 2024 and 64 times in 2023.

“The Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants were very efficient for the most part on this flight, but I don’t think they were really prepared for a fire situation,” he said. “And I think they should be.”

— Tatum Todd covers crime and public safety. Contact him at [email protected] or 503-221-4313.