Moments before a China Southern Airlines flight took off, passengers noticed a fire in a carry-on bag placed in an overhead bin.
Power bank fire on board China Southern CZ3539, Feb 25 2018.😱😱 pic.twitter.com/cby6E62qRv
— ChinaAviationReview (@ChinaAvReview) February 25, 2018
The incident took place on Sunday when flight 3539 from Guangzhou to Shanghai witnessed flames coming out from a power bank kept in one of the bags in the plane.
According to reports in Channel News Asia, a flight crew member tossed water from a bottle to douse the fire instead using a fire extinguisher. The entire incident was captured on a video which was posted to China Aviation Review’s Twitter account.
Post the incident, China Southern was not available for any comment. However, the incident is under investigation and the passenger who owned the power bank placed in the bag is helping police to probe the matter. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident.
With the increase in numbers of such incidents aboard planes, US airlines have banned so-called ‘smart’ luggage which has USB ports for charging devices.
