A Delta Air Lines flight carrying 185 passengers and six crew members made an emergency landing in Southwest Florida on Monday morning after a passenger's portable battery caught fire mid-flight, sending smoke throughout the cabin and forcing pilots to divert from their Fort Lauderdale destination.
Flight 1334, operating on a Boeing 757-200, landed safely at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers at 8:48 a.m. local time with no injuries reported, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The incident marks the latest in a troubling surge of lithium battery fires aboard commercial aircraft, with the FAA recording 34 such cases in 2025 alone.
Flight attendants aboard the Atlanta-originated flight "worked quickly to extinguish a probable burning personal battery belonging to a customer while pilots followed procedures to safely divert the flight," a Delta spokesperson said in a statement12. The crew used onboard fire extinguishers and placed the device in a thermal containment bag designed for such emergencies.
"The backpack has been contained. We think it was a lithium battery that caused the smoke and the fire," the pilot radioed to Fort Myers firefighters, according to a LiveATC.net recording2. "It's in a containment bag. No smoke in the cabin at this point. No active fire."
The 35.1-year-old aircraft, registered as N659DL, was able to continue to Fort Lauderdale later that afternoon3. The FAA has launched an investigation into the incident.
The emergency landing underscores mounting concerns over lithium-ion battery safety in aviation. FAA data reveals a 388% rise in lithium battery fires on U.S. flights between 2015 and 2024, with 11 of this year's 34 cases directly attributed to battery packs1.
Airlines are responding with stricter policies. Southwest Airlines introduced an industry-first requirement in May mandating that portable chargers remain visible during flight, while Singapore Airlines has banned the use and charging of power banks entirely1.
The thermal runaway effect, which can generate intense heat and fire when lithium-ion devices malfunction, remains a known hazard for aviation safety experts1.
Monday's battery fire comes one day after another Delta emergency. On July 6, an Airbus A330-323 flying from Madrid to New York diverted to the Azores following an engine failure, stranding passengers for over a day12.
"We appreciate the quick work and actions by our people to follow their training, and we apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels," the Delta spokesperson said3.
