An e-cigarette caught on fire on an American Airlines flight in Chicago

Mike Blake / Reuters

An American Airlines Airbus A321.

• An e-cigarette caught fire shortly after an American Airlines plane landed in Chicago on Friday.
• Flight attendants quickly extinguished the blaze, the airline said in a statement.
• It's the latest incident in a spate of electrical fires onboard planes.

The battery of an e-cigarette ignited on an American Airlines flight shortly after landing at Chicago's O'Hare airport on Friday, USA Today first reported.

In a statement to Business Insider, an airline spokesperson said "flight attendants quickly extinguished the fire and the plane taxied to the gate," noting that employees are trained on fighting battery fires and that it would report the event to the Federal Aviation Administration.

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Electrical fires have been the culprit in a string of delays and emergency landings in recent months. Most recently, an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York had to stop down in Phoenix after a "sudden burst of smoke" from a galley chiller. Overseas, a Pegasus Airlines flight en route to Paris was forced to land in Zagreb, Croatia, following an e-cigarette fire.

According to Transportation Security Administration guidelines, electronic cigarettes and vaping devices can be stored in carry-on bags or carried with a passenger, but may not travel in checked bags.

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Incidents are still rare, but they may be increasing. 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.

"As part of safety management and risk mitigation, we always evaluate additional ways to enhance existing procedures to ensure cabin safety," the American Airlines spokesperson said.