A passenger was treated and released after a laptop caught fire aboard American Airlines Flight 2398 as it approached Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Friday, filling the Airbus A321's cabin with smoke and prompting flight attendants to contain the device using a thermal containment bag.
The flight, carrying 133 people from Atlanta, landed safely at around 6:55pm local time. The pilot reported to air traffic control that four to five passengers may have suffered burns while the fire was being dealt with, and that the laptop had been moved to the middle of the aircraft once contained. One passenger was confirmed treated at the scene and released; no hospitalizations were reported. American Airlines said the aircraft landed safely after reports of smoke from a passenger's device during landing and thanked its crew for their response. The FAA is investigating.
This is the second laptop fire on an American Airlines aircraft this year. In an earlier incident, a laptop ignited inside a carry-on bag during boarding of American Airlines Flight 2045 from San Francisco to Miami, prompting a full evacuation via emergency slides and the jetbridge, with three minor injuries reported from the evacuation itself.
The FAA has recorded 58 verified lithium battery air incidents involving smoke, fire or extreme heat aboard US passenger aircraft so far in 2026. Over the past two decades, laptop batteries account for the highest incident count of any single device category at 84 cases, ahead of battery packs, e-cigarettes and mobile phones. Because lithium batteries can enter a process of thermal runaway - where an internal fault causes temperature to rise rapidly and self-reinforce - a smoking device in a pressurized cabin is treated as an emergency regardless of how contained it initially appears.
The pattern extends beyond US carriers. A UK-bound EasyJet flight from Egypt was diverted to Rome in May after a power bank was found charging in a passenger's checked luggage, delaying the journey by a full day. The UK Civil Aviation Authority has flagged power banks as a growing source of serious in-flight issues globally.
Frequency is the issue. WTW's aviation team, in analysis reported by Insurance Business earlier this year, identified lithium battery risk as systemic rather than episodic, noting that the insured peril can originate from a consumer power bank, an incorrectly declared battery shipment or a compliant freight pallet - and that the average US traveler carries four battery-powered devices per flight. Spread across hundreds of passengers on a modern widebody, that is a meaningful aggregate exposure per departure.
That exposure is landing on a market already under financial pressure. Gallagher Specialty's Plane Talking research found attritional losses have eroded airline premium bases after several consecutive loss-making years, pushing underwriters toward rate increases heading into 2026. The International Civil Aviation Organization responded in March 2026 with new global specifications limiting passengers to two power banks each and banning in-flight recharging, on top of existing airline-specific restrictions on device capacity and storage.
For brokers placing aviation coverage, the WTW analysis points to a shift in how underwriters are framing the risk. The question is no longer simply whether an airline has experienced a battery incident, but whether it can demonstrate credible operational controls: crew training on two-step fire suppression procedures, thermal containment equipment carried and used correctly in practice rather than only in training, clear passenger communication protocols, and cargo screening processes for both declared and undeclared battery shipments.
Friday's incident on Flight 2398 - contained with a thermal containment bag, one passenger treated, no evacuation required, aircraft landing under its own power - is a reasonable demonstration of those controls functioning as designed. That outcome is worth noting at renewal as evidence of effective crew response under real conditions.
What it cannot do is alter the frequency trend. Fifty-eight incidents in eight months, a second American Airlines laptop fire within the same year, and a high-profile European diversion all point to a peril that is becoming routine rather than rare. For an aviation market absorbing rate pressure from a run of loss-making years, a risk rising in frequency while remaining largely non-fatal is exactly the kind of exposure that shows up first in underwriting scrutiny and risk control requirements - well before it produces a headline catastrophic loss.
