Woman Gets Burned By Exploding Headphones During Flight

Last February 19, a woman passenger traveling from Beijing, China to Australia got the fright of her life when the headphones she was wearing was caught on fire, burning her face and neck.

According to the woman, whose name was not revealed, she was sleeping two hours into the flight when a slight explosion woke her up.

"As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face. I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck," she said. "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."

"As I went to stamp my foot on them the flight attendants were already there with a bucket of water to pour on them. They put them into the bucket at the rear of the plane."

Because of the incident, the other passengers endured the acrid smell of smoke and plastic. Some of them were also coughing and choking all throughout the flight, reports said.

The headphones the woman passenger was wearing was battery-operated, and the explosion was said to be caused by the batteries overheating. Although this hazard is a likely occurrence, it's the first time this kind of case was reported in Australia, according to Stuart Godley of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

This prompted a series of safety precautions by the Bureau in bringing battery-operated devices on a flight, especially devices using lithium batteries. There's no need to ban bringing these devices onboard a flight, but the Bureau wants the passengers to be extra careful next time.

"There is a bit more of a fire risk for lithium batteries than for other batteries. If you're carrying spare batteries always have them in your carry-on baggage," Godley said."Never put them underneath in your cargo because if it does catch on fire or short and there are other batteries nearby, they can get thermal runaway where each of the batteries catch on fire."

"Makes sure the ends of them are protected and they can't rub together. If you do have personal device that gets caught down in between the gaps of the seats don't move your seat, just call a flight attendant because the movement of the seat could crush the phone and start a fire."