Air China flight makes emergency landing as overhead locker bursts into flames

An Air China flight from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport for Seoul was forced into making an emergency landing in Shanghai after an overhead locker suddenly went up in flames

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Terrified passengers watched on as an overhead locker went up in flames forcing a plane^[1] to make an emergency landing with the cabin full of smoke.

A lithium battery inside carry-on luggage had ignited on board a packed Air China^[2] flight that had left Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport for Seoul. There were 160 passengers along with crew on the plane when the flames suddenly erupted and there was panic with people screaming.

Cabin crew along with passengers were running up and down the aisle while a man could be seen looking at the bags in the locker to try and work out where the fire was coming from.

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People were shouting for the crew to hurry as they came down the aisle with a fire extinguisher and were able to put out the flames. A passenger on board had also said that they had heard a loud explosion before the flames developed which further added to the alarm on board.

Air China issued a statement afterwards saying that a “lithium battery in a passenger’s carry-on luggage stored in the overhead compartment spontaneously ignited,” on board Flight CA139 which had departed at 9.47am for Incheon International Airport in South Korea.

It added that the crew had responded quickly to the incident and had put out the fire while nobody had been injured but due to “flight safety” the plane was still diverted to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

The plane landed in Shanghai at around 11am according to Flightradar24 and passengers were later put on another aircraft which took them to Seoul.

As well as the video of the flames and thick smoke which quickly spread causing terrified passengers to shout, photos shared online also show scorched marks on several rows of seats indicating how big was the fire.

While it has been confirmed that the fire was started by a lithium battery there have not been any details about what the device was or who was the manufacturer.

It is the latest incident on flights involving lithium-batteries in the region this year. In May, a China Southern Airlines flight from Hangzhou to Shenzhen had to return to the airport 15 minutes after take-off when smoke poured from a passenger’s camera battery and power bank.

And in January, South Korean officials said a spare power bank likely caused a fire on an Air Busan flight carrying 169 passengers and seven crew where seven people suffered minor injuries.