{"id":220034,"date":"2026-03-25T17:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T17:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/220034\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T17:14:12","slug":"battery-starts-smoking-on-united-express-flight-to-houston-pilots-declare-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/220034\/","title":{"rendered":"Battery starts smoking on United Express flight to Houston, pilots declare emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">HOUSTON \u2013 A United Express flight to Houston was diverted after a passenger\u2019s device battery started smoking on the plane. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The pilots of United Express flight 6110, operated by Mesa Airlines, declared an emergency, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/flightradar24\/status\/2036826462645268762\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/flightradar24\/status\/2036826462645268762\">according<\/a> to FlightRadar24. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The plane was flying from Lubbock to Houston\u2019s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). Pilots diverted to San Antonio where they safely landed without incident, an airline spokesperson told KPRC 2. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Lithium-ion batteries used in most portable electronic devices can smoke or catch fire on airplanes primarily due to a failure known as thermal runaway, a chain reaction in which rising internal temperatures cause the battery to release flammable gases, ignite, and generate extreme heat, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/hazmat\/packsafe\/lithium-batteries\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/hazmat\/packsafe\/lithium-batteries\">according<\/a> to the FAA. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">This can be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/hazmat\/packsafe\/portable-electronic-devices-with-batteries\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/hazmat\/packsafe\/portable-electronic-devices-with-batteries\">triggered<\/a> by manufacturing defects, physical damage, overcharging, or short circuits. These conditions can be exacerbated in flight by pressure changes, confined storage (such as carry-on bags or overhead bins), or closely packed devices that trap heat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Mesa Airlines is working to get all passengers to their final destinations. <\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 A United Express flight to Houston was diverted after a passenger\u2019s device battery started smoking on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[20534,2399,504,6832,405,56,58,57,17930,85775,251,85774,840,6208,2825],"class_list":["post-220034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-bush-airport","tag-faa","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-george-bush-intercontinental-airport","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-iah","tag-lithium-ion-battery","tag-local-news","tag-mesa-airlines","tag-transportation","tag-travel","tag-united-airlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}