During a flight from Beijing, China to Melbourne, Australia on February 19th, a woman passenger’s headphone caught fire resulting in burning her face during the process.
The woman was reportedly asleep when the explosion happened. According to a report published by Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau, the battery within the Bluetooth headset of that woman was the culprit behind this incident. The report, however, refrained from disclosing the identification of the victim, name of the airline, or the brand to which those exploded Bluetooth headphones belonged.
A loud explosion was heard when the headphones caught fire, with the woman saying that “as I went to turn around I felt burning on my face,” report adds. The passenger says that she pulled her Bluetooth headphones down her neck but threw them airplane’s floor after realizing that they were still alight. The fire was immediately extinguished by the flight attendant with the help of water.
This incident sheds some light on the fact that how hot these things can get when they start to malfunction. The photos of the woman have been released in which she appears to have escaped serious injuries, still the headphones certainly left their mark.
The exploding battery in consumer products has become a big news these days following last years’ exploding Galaxy Note 7 incidents and a brave move by Samsung to recall the units that were already out in the wild and then cancellation of the product altogether due to the batteries inside it had the tendency to explode.
When the number of exploding Note 7 incident skyrocketed, many airlines disallowed to carry it on flights due to the risk of fire. This resulted in issues for travelers who were either left with the decision to hand over their smartphone or missing their flight.
After the infamous Galaxy Note 7 scandal, this latest incident once again highlights that there’s never an overkill of security measures when the flights are concerned. Fortunately, no one was seriously Thankfully, nobody appears to have been seriously injured this time around.
(via: ATSB)