'Smoke from bag, power bank on fire': Indigo flight evacuated at Chandigarh airport

IndiGo on Tuesday evacuated passengers using slides from its Hyderabad-Chandigarh flight after a personal electronic device (PED) caught fire. Smoke from a bag was detected when the aircraft had come to a halt and passengers were yet to disembark. The airline then decided to carry out immediate evacuation using emergency slides. Everyone on board is learnt to be safe. An IndiGo spokesperson said: “On May 5, 2026, while IndiGo flight 6E 108 from Hyderabad to Chandigarh was stationary after landing, an incident involving a customer's personal electronic equipment catching fire was reported. In the interest of safety, an immediate evacuation was carried out and all the relevant authorities were immediately informed. All customers have been safely moved to the terminal and are being attended to by the team to ensure their well-being. ”

"The aircraft will undergo necessary checks before resuming operations. At IndiGo, the safety of our customers and crew remains our top priority," the IndiGo spokesperson added. In recent months, several countries including India have started restricting power bank usage on aircraft due to the possibility of the same catching fire. Apart from limiting number of power banks and their batter capacity, the same can neither be used to charge a PED nor be charged via the in-seat power source on aircraft. Also Power banks have to be kept in front of passengers so that smoke can be visible at the earliest if they catch fire, and not be kept in overhead baggage compartments. But the biggest scare on this front remains airlines taking cabin bags from passengers at boarding gate to be kept in baggage hold of aircraft. These cabin bags may have PEDs, power banks and if a fire breaks out in them in the belly baggage hold, the same won't even get detected easily. The aviation ministry is aware of this issue and is working to resolve it.