Smoking mobile phone causes British Airways 787 Dreamliner to make emergency landing in Irkutsk

The BA flight from Seoul to London with 205 passengers on board made an emergency landing in the Siberian city after the faulty device belonging to a passenger began emitting smoke. A Russian report that there was smoke in the cockpit was denied by the airline. 

'The landing was safe. No passengers were injured,' said a spokesman at Irkutsk Airport. 

 BA said the landing was a 'precaution' adding: 'The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority.'

The smartphone - which the passenger had dropped under his seat - suffered a 'thermal runaway' and emitted smoke.

'The flight crew declared emergency reporting smoke in the cabin and diverted the aircraft to Irkutsk while cabin crew began to cool the device down and brought the fire under control,' reported The Aviation Herald. 'The aircraft remained on the ground for almost three hours then was able to continue the journey and is estimated to reach London with a delay of three hours.'

The cause of the emergency was that the smartphone 'was exposed to large pressure resulting in the battery being squashed and suffering a thermal runaway', it was reported. It was unclear if the mobile phone was removed from the aircraft after the emergency.