Source: Simon Hradecky | www.avherald.com

An Avianca Airbus A320-200N, registration HK-5410 performing flight AV-249 from Bogota (Colombia) to Sao Paulo Guarulhos,SP (Brazil) with 161 passengers and 6 crew, was climbing out of Bogota’s runway 14R when the crew stopped the climb at about FL240 and decided to return to Bogota reporting a passenger’s phone had suffered a thermal runaway. The aircraft landed safely back on Bogota’s runway 14L about 3:25 hours after departure.

The airline reported two passengers had become unruly and threw a mobile phone that heated up as a result. The aircraft burned off fuel, the disruptive passengers were handed to authorities.

A replacement A320-200N registration N919AV reached Sao Paulo with a delay of about 5:30 hours.

The occurrence aircraft returned to service about 11 hours after landing back.