Fire breaks out in overhead storage on Chinese aircraft

A fire broke out in the overhead storage of a Chinese passenger jet moments before it was scheduled to take off. Flight attendants and a passenger threw water and juice over a bag in the luggage compartment as it was engulfed in heavy smoke and flames. The fire was thought to have been triggered by a power bank that was being carried in the bag, reports said. The owner was taken away by police for questioning. All the passengers were forced to disembark the Boeing 777 following the fire, which happened while the plane was parked on the tarmac at Guangzhou Airport in southern China. It was scheduled to fly to Shanghai. The passengers and crew were taken to a different aircraft which took off just after 3pm, three hours after the original flight was scheduled to depart. Fire caused by portable charger on China Southern flight in Guangzhou was put out promptly, while passengers were relocated to another plane pic.twitter.com/HYwShVN1t3— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) February 25, 2018 The power charger was not in use when the fire started, Chinese media said. The video of the fire was shared widely on Chinese social media, where many were commenting on why only bottles of water and juice were used to extinguished the flames. “Don’t they have proper fire extinguishers on planes,” said one comment on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. The fire on the aircraft Credit: Weibo However, other observers said the crew reacted to the fire correctly. “Using water is standard operation procedure,” said a Tweet from ChinaAviationReview, which tweets updates on Chinese aviation news.  “Water is actually better than… extinguisher in case of lithium battery fire.” Chinese airlines allow lithium batteries to be taken onto aircraft in hand luggage, but they are not allowed to be packed in checked-in luggage. Additional reporting by Christine Wei

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