When Scott Summers was a boy growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, his father, USAF Major Christopher Summers, took the family for a flight on their de Havilland Mosquito. It came under attack and as the plane went down in flames, Scott's parents fastened him and his younger brother Alex into a parachute and pushed them off the plane, hoping that they would survive. Due to Scott's poor control over his power, the parachute caught fire and Scott struck his head upon landing. This caused brain damage to Scott which is responsible for his poor control over his optic blasts. The two brothers were put into an orphanage, before separating after Scott was forced to run away after mistreatment from the orphanage's owner.