Air China flight makes emergency landing as fire and smoke burst from overhead locker mid-flight
Passengers were screaming in terror after a fire broke out in the cabin of an aircraft during the flight.
An Air China flight was forced to make an emergency landing after fire broke out inside the cabin. Passengers screamed in terror as flames and smoke burst free from an overhead compartment mid-flight.
The blaze, on board an Air China Airbus A321 travelling from eastern China to South Korea, was caught on camera by shocked fliers, with some heard calling for cabin crew to "hurry up" and tackle the flames.
Cabin staff were eventually able to extinguish the flames before the aircraft made an emergency landing at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. Air China confirmed the fire started after a power bank stored inside carry-on luggage caught fire - and that no one was hurt.
"On October 18, on flight CA139 from Hangzhou to Incheon, a lithium battery in a passenger’s carry-on luggage stored in the overhead compartment spontaneously ignited," a spokesperson for the airline said.
It came after Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) banned passengers from carrying power banks and other lithium batteries on board domestic flights in June, after a number of similar incidents. Batteries without the standard 3C labelling and lithium-ion batteries, often found in power banks, have been banned.