An Air China plane was diverted safely to Shanghai this Saturday after a battery stored in a passenger’s hand luggage caught fire, the airline said.
The incident occurred on board the flight that departed from the city of Hangzhou, in eastern China, to Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, South Korea.
“A lithium battery stored in a passenger’s hand luggage in the overhead compartment of flight CA139 caught fire spontaneously,” the airline said in a statement published on the Chinese social network Weibo.
No one was injured
“The crew immediately dealt with the situation based on procedures, and no one was injured,” the document said, adding that the plane was diverted to Shanghai Pudong International Airport “to ensure the safety of the flight.”
An image taken by a passenger and published by national state media outlet Jimu News shows flames in an upper compartment, where black smoke is visible and at least one passenger trying to put out the fire.
According to data from Flightradar24, which monitors global air traffic, the flight took off from Hangzhou at 9:47 am local time (2:47 am in mainland Portugal), flew over the sea, approximately equidistant from the east coast of China and the Japanese island of Kyushu, before landing in Shanghai shortly after 11 am local time (4 am in Lisbon).