An e-cigarette caught fire onboard a Pegasus Airlines plane and forced it to make an emergency landing

Shutterstock/Vytautas Kielaitis

A Pegasus Boeing 737-800

• An e-cigarette caught fire while onboard a Pegasus Airlines flight, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.
• On Tuesday, Pegasus Airlines Flight 1135, a Boeing 737-800, took off from Istanbul and was forced to divert from its scheduled journey to Paris in order to make an emergency landing at Zagreb Airport in Croatia
• Daily Sabah, a Turkish daily, reports that smoke alarms went off in the airplane's cargo hold, and has confirmed a passenger's e-cigarette caught fire in their luggage. 
• A recent report by Consumer Affairs found that federal agencies have been underestimating the number of burns, injuries, and explosions created by e-cigarettes. 

An e-cigarette caught fire while onboard a Pegasus Airlines plane, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing. 

On Tuesday, Pegusus Airliner Flight 1135, a Boeing 737-800, took off from Istanbul and was forced to divert from its scheduled journey to Paris in order to make an emergency landing at Zagreb Airport in Croatia.

According to FlightRadar24, a live air traffic website, it was about halfway through the flight when the Pegasus Airline plane needed to divert in the direction of Zagreb.

According to reports, a passenger's e-cigarette caught fire in the middle of the flight. Daily Sabah, a Turkish daily, reports that smoke alarms went off in the airplanes cargo hold, forcing the pilots to make the emergency landing. Daily Sabah said that Pegasus Airlines has confirmed a passenger's e-cigarette caught fire in their luggage.  

Pegasus Airlines did not respond to Business Insider when asked for comment.  

According to a social media post by Turkish Air News, all passengers were evacuated upon landing and no intervention by the fire brigade was necessary. 

While it is certainly rare for an e-cigarette to cause a fire on an airplane, it is not out of the ordinary for an accident like this to occur. A recent report by Consumer Affairs found that federal agencies have been underestimating the number of burns, injuries, and explosions created by e-cigarette technology, which converts liquid nicotine into mist through the heating of a battery.  

A photo of the Pegasus Airline plane being attended to by emergency personnel was posted by Turkish Air News' on social media on Tuesday morning.