A Batik Air flight started to be filled with smoke from a burning power bank minutes before it landed in Bangkok, with videos published to social networks revealing panic amongst travelers.
One almost four-minute clip, published on TikTok, reveals smoke dispersing from the overhead baggage compartment, filling the cabin area.
Flight attendants can be seen in the video monitoring overhead luggage compartments to search for the source of the smoke.
Guests seated near to what appears like the afflicted part of the cabin can be seen leaving their seats before the attendants opened the compartment to put out the fire utilizing an extinguisher.
A long time later on, the team can be seen opening the compartment totally as white smoke puts out.
A traveler seated opposite the impacted compartment recovered a black bag and was accompanied to the back of the airplane by an attendant bring the extinguisher.
In a follow-up video, TikTok user kentmaherr stated the smoke at first appeared like “steam” however was quickly accompanied by a strong “chemical-like odor” as the smoke thickened.
“Luckily, nobody on the flight worried, everybody was calm,” kentmaherr stated, according to The Strait Times.
He stated he and a couple of others followed the traveler as he brought his black bag to the back of the airplane to see him take a power bank out of the bag, which was lastly completely snuffed out utilizing 3 mineral water bottles.
Thankfully the airplane, which removed from Johor Bahru, was just thirty minutes far from its location– Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok– when the smoke began spreading out.
“All travelers were stunned by the thick smoke coming out of the baggage compartment, with the odor of fire stinging their noses,” the TikTok user composed in the video’s caption.
“This is the very first time I experienced such an occurrence. I thank Allah for the possibility to still live!” he stated.
A number of airline company operators in Asia have actually started enacting modifications to their baggage bring policy after an occurrence including a fire in the back of an Air Busan Plane A321 before departure.
While nobody was eliminated because event, the airplane was terribly harmed.
Korean Air, Asiana, China Airlines, along with Eva Air, headquartered in Taiwan, have actually signed up with the airline company in prohibiting power banks, vapes and lithium-ion batteries from overhead compartments. Beginning with Saturday 1 March, such products need to be kept a traveler’s individual at all times.