Australian authorities are investigating why a pair of battery-powered headphones caught fire two hours into a flight between Beijing and Melbourne, blackening and blistering a female passenger’s face and hands.
The woman was sleeping and listening to music about two hours into the trip when she heard an explosion.
“As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face,” she told the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which issued a statement as a warning to other passengers.
The passenger on an international flight, said she tore off the headphones and threw them to the floor, where she saw they were shooting off sparks and small flames.
“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,” she said.
They couldn’t remove all of the headphones however — both the battery and cover had melted into the aircraft floor.
“People were coughing and choking the entire way home,” the passenger told the ATSB, adding the cabin reeked of melted plastic and burned hair.
Peter Gibson, communications manager for Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, told CNN they would be investigating the incident.
“If it seems the device was damaged, then that will explain it … but you know if it was a genuine battery and hadn’t been abused then we will go to the manufacturer and see what’s going on,” he said.
