SYDNEY, (MILLAT/APP/AFP) – A woman whose headphones caught fire on a plane suffered burns to her face and hands, Australian officials said Wednesday as they warned about the dangers of battery-operated devices in-flight.
The passenger was listening to music on her own battery-operated headphones as she dozed about two hours into the trip from Beijing to Melbourne on February 19 when there was a loud explosion.
“As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face,” she told the
Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) which investigated the incident.
“I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck. I continued to feel burning so I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor.
“They were sparking and had small amounts of fire.”
Flight attendants rushed to help and poured a bucket of water on the
headphones, but the battery and its cover had both melted and stuck to the
floor.
Pictures show the woman, who was not named, with a blackened face and neck and blisters on her hands.
Fellow passengers had to endure the smell of melted plastic, burnt
electronics and singed hair for the remainder of the flight.
“People were coughing and choking the entire way home,” the woman added.
The transport safety bureau, which did not identify the airline or brand of headphones involved ni the incident, said the lithium-ion batteries in the device likely caught fire.
“As the range of products using batteries grows, the potential for
in-flight issues increases,” it said, adding that such devices needed to be
stored safely if they were not being used.
Spare batteries should be kept in carry-on luggage, and not checked in, the bureau said.