Panic reigned among the passengers of the Airbus A321 plane, which was flying from Hangzhou, China, to Incheon, South Korea.
Footage circulating on social media shows a luggage compartment that caught fire while the plane was at an altitude of 10,000 meters. Panicked passengers, as well as flight attendants, ran towards the fire to put it out as quickly as possible, while cries for them to hurry echoed through the cabin, writes Metro.
Fire breaks out in the overhead luggage bin on board Air China flight CA139 while flying between Hangzhou and Seoul.
It is understood that the cause of the fire was a spontaneously combusting lithium battery in a passenger’s luggage.
The cabin crew contained the fire and the… pic.twitter.com/IV5LEYxIy5
— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) October 18, 2025
The Air China flight was forced to end in Shanghai. The airline company confirmed that the cause of the fire was a portable lithium battery, which was in the luggage of one of the passengers.
Air China flight CA139 (B-8583), an Airbus A321-232, was en route at FL330 from Hangzhou to Seoul when a thermal runaway of a lithium battery occurred, leading to a fire in an overhead bin. The flight diverted to Shanghai.pic.twitter.com/rEZdFrC2MZ
— Aviation Safety Network (ASN) (@AviationSafety) October 18, 2025
“On October 18, on flight CA139 from Hangzhou to Incheon, a lithium battery in hand luggage stored in the overhead compartment spontaneously ignited,” the company said in a statement.
This is another in a series of incidents related to self-ignition of lithium-ion batteries in flight. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has previously banned such batteries on domestic flights. Fortunately, no one was injured in this case.
(Vijesti.ba)
