Source: Luke Kenton | www.dailymail.co.uk

A passenger’s e-cigarette battery overheated and exploded, causing a fire to break out on an American Airlines flight on Friday night.

Confirmed by the airline, crew aboard Flight 168 from Las Vegas to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport were forced to stamp out the small blaze in the plane’s cabin on December 4.

None of the 144 passengers and crew on board the vessel were injured and plane safely taxied to the gate.

E-cigarettes have been strictly prohibited by the US Transportation Department in checked luggage, because of their potential to suddenly catch fire. Passengers are permitted to carry them in their hand-luggage, but they cannot be used during the flight.

‘We are thankful for our flight attendants who quickly put their training to use to keep our passengers safe’, American Airlines spokeswoman Leslie Scott said in an statement

In July, a co-pilot of an Air China flight caused a plane to plummet nearly 20,000 ft after smoking an e-cigarette in the cockpit and accidentally switching off the air-conditioning system.’

According to the airline he had allegedly been trying to turn off air recycling fans to prevent the vapor from spreading into the passenger cabin.

A few months later in October, a Paris-bound Pegasuses Airline flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Croatia, after a passenger’s e-cigarette suddenly burst into flames and caused smoke alarms in the cabin to go off.

Though it’s considered rare for a vape pen or e-cigarette to catch fire, a recent report by Consumer Affairs suggests that federal and aviation agencies may be underestimating the number of burns, injuries, and explosions created by e-cigarette technology.