14 DAY TRIAL // A mobile phone charger set what appears to be a backpack on fire in the overhead locker of a China Southern Airlines plane while passengers were boarding for a flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai Hongqiao airport.
While no specifics were provided on the device that exploded, the airline says it was a “portable mobile phone charger,” so it was likely an external battery that can recharge the device on the go. Surprisingly, however, company officials said the charger was not in use when the fire started.
Judging from the video embedded below, the battery was charging a mobile device in a backpack, before eventually overheating and bursting into flames, setting the luggage on fire.
Nobody was injured, and the crew evacuated the plane, according to reports from local media. Flight CZ3539, however, suffered a 3-hour delay following the incident.
Minor damage to the aircraft
A video shows the crew trying to put out the fire with bottles of water before firefighters arrived to the scene, and the airline says no extinguishers were used because the flight attendants reacted very fast.
“Our colleague reacted to the fire in a timely and appropriate way,” the company was quoted as saying.
Local law enforcement has already started an investigation to determine what exactly happened, though judging from the information we have right now, it’s pretty clear that the power bank overheated and eventually burst into flames as batteries seem to do occasionally these days.
Fortunately, however, nobody was injured, and the airline says only minor damaged was caused to the aircraft, and this is the reason the flight was only delayed and not canceled.
It remains to be seen if more information is provided on the battery that caused the incident, but for the time being, this is just another warning that mobile devices need to be treated with extra care, especially when charging.