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Fire in the sky!
Airplane passengers were thrown into a panic after a power bank ignited and filled the cabin with smoke right before landing, as seen in an incendiary TikTok video with 2.2 million views.
“In my entire life of traveling, this is the first time I have experienced an incident like this,” the fly-witness who filmed the clip, named Kent, told Jam Press.
The incident reportedly occurred on February 24 aboard a Batik Airlines flight from Johor Bahru, Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand. The aircraft was reportedly 30 minutes from touching down when smoke started billowing from an overhead luggage bin toward the front of the plane, prompting a passenger to alert the flight attendants, the Straits Times reported.
In the clip, smoke is spreading throughout the cabin as three crew members run their hands over the baggage compartments to try and locate the source of the heat. Passengers can be heard murmuring anxiously while others are seen filming the chaotic scene on their phones.
In a followup clip, Kent explained that the smoke initially looked like steam but had a strong “chemical-like smell” as it grew thicker, the Straits Times reported.
At one point, the flight attendants ask passengers sitting below the affected compartment to vacate their seats, before opening the bin a touch and using an extinguisher to douse the blaze.
Several minutes later, the crewmembers reopen the bin, prompting white smoke to pour out.
They then help the passengers remove their bags while one man stands on a seat so he can retrieve a black bag. He is then escorted to the back of the plane by a flight attendant holding a fire extinguisher.
Kent explained in the followup video that he and a few passengers followed said passenger and saw him take the culprit power bank out of a bag and put it in a container.
A flight attendant subsequently dumped three bottles of water over it to extinguish the flames, but they had to wait a while for the smoke to disperse.
Nonetheless, the videographer commended crewmembers and passengers for their “quick action and cooperation, noting that they had the situation under control in minutes.
“The passengers and flight attendants worked together to extinguish the fire and the situation was back under control and safe,” said Kent, who added that fire and ambulance teams were waiting to assist them upon arrival at the airport.
“Thank you Allah for the opportunity to still be alive,” he said.
Unfortunately, portable battery chargers catching fire has been an all-too-common phenomenon in the friendly skies of late.
In a similar incident last winter, a power bank exploded and filled a plane cabin with smoke during an AirAsia flight in Thailand.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cited a 388% surge in fires caused by the devices over the last decade.
In light of these inflammatory incidents, Air Busan, Korean Air, Asiana, China Airlines and Eva Air, have prohibited passengers from keeping power banks, vapes and lithium-ion batteries in the overhead bins, declaring that they must instead be kept on the flyer’s person at all times.
