Flight attendants ‘were not prepared’ for battery fire on Hawaiian 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 on 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 goes, 'Oh my God, there's smoke coming out from your seat."

Seconds later, smoke was billowing up from under him "like a campfire," while flight attendants scrambled to find a fire extinguisher and contain the burning tablet, the 57-year-old electrical engineer said.

The FAA reported the following day that the source of the smoke was an iPad that had apparently caught fire on Hawaiian Airlines Flight 26, prompting an emergency fire and medical response as soon as the plane touched down around 9 p.m. The incident was the latest case of lithium-ion batteries combusting in Portland. On Sept. 12, almost a dozen people were burned out of their homes by e-scooter and e-bike batteries that started catastrophic fires, and in August, an e-scooter battery exploded, setting off a fire in a Northwest Portland apartment building.

Nobody had to be transported to the hospital after Thursday's incident, but Rebstock says that he and his wife are experiencing lasting symptoms.

He said the fire started shortly after he adjusted his seat and apparently crushed an iPad that was wedged 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 in-flight devices that Hawaiian Airlines provides to first-class passengers; spokesperson Alex Da Silva told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the airline is "determining if the iPad was among the complimentary tablets that we provide."

As Michael and Casey Rebstock struggled to breathe and Michael experienced nausea, confusion and dizziness, the acrid smoke set the plane's crew scrambling, she said.

"They had no idea where the fire extinguisher was," 56-year-old Casey Rebstock said, adding that she heard a flight attendant asking another crew member where it was multiple times.

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

Meanwhile, other flight attendants were trying to pull the molten iPad out of the seat, but without success. Another passenger eventually recovered the burning device using a pair of metal serving tongs that a flight attendant gave him from the kitchen. Michael added that the crew never used the fire extinguisher after they found it.

"The majority of what was happening was at passenger's suggestions and actions," Casey said. "They were not prepared for this scenario."

When asked for comment by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Da Silva said the airline apologizes to guests for the event.

"We train all our crewmembers to safely suppress lithium battery fires," he said. "And we were one of the first airlines to carry special fireproof bags and gloves." Da Silva added that containment bags are the preferred way to address 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 pulled the iPad out of the seat with the serving tongs, Michael said that the flight attendants were ready with a fireproof bag to put the device in.

But with several minutes left of the flight, the cabin was still filled with smoke from the burned electronic until a passenger suggested turning up the air flow, Casey Rebstock said.

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

When the plane finally landed in Portland, Michael was checked out by a paramedic, who found that his blood pressure was at 180 over 105 — far above his normal range. But he said he opted not to go to the hospital, although he is still experiencing persistent headaches, nausea and fatigue.

Rick Graves, a spokesperson for Portland Fire & Rescue — which helped with the response to the fire — said that such symptoms aren't unusual.

"Any and all smoke contains toxins that are harmful to human health," he said in an email. "With a lithium-ion battery fire, the release of hydrogen fluoride and other aerosolized electrolytes can be quite harmful when inhaled."

But Michael Rebstock is still grateful that the situation wasn't worse.

"If that happened a couple 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 take note of the incident and make a point of checking for electronics in vulnerable positions between flights. He also hopes that airlines ensure their staff are prepared for battery fires — which the FAA reports have happened on more than 40 passenger flights in 2024, and 64 times in 2023.

"The flight attendants on Hawaiian Airlines for the most part on this flight were great, but I don't think they were very prepared for a fire situation," he said. "And I think they need to be."