Two Injured In Fire On Board Southwest Flight At Denver Airport

Maybe all those warnings they've given us over the years about cell phones - and especially their batteries - being dangerous on board flights were true after all. Let this be a lesson next time you try to sneak leaving your phone powered up during takeoff and landing.

Early Friday morning at Denver International Airport, Southwest Airlines flight 3316 was boarded and ready to depart the gate and fly to Houston with 108 passengers on board.

A passenger's cell phone apparently ignited somehow, setting that passenger's seat on fire and forcing an evacuation of the plane. The front half of the plane exited onto the jetway while the rear passengers actually deployed the slides out of the rear emergency exits to get out.

The crew on board was able to extinguish the fire pretty quickly, and the passenger whose phone caught on fire was treated for minor burns by medical personnel in Denver. One other passenger was apparently injured during the evacuation procedures.

All passengers were eventually loaded onto a different plane and flown to Houston as planned.

Apparently these type of lithium-ion batteries cause this sort of issue on flights on a semi-regular basis, with cases affecting flights having increased 42% over the last few years, according to the FAA via a report from a CBS News Investigation.