A321 burns out completelyPower bank in hand luggage is said to have triggered Airbus inferno
SDA
29.1.2025 - 17:45
It took the emergency services more than an hour to extinguish the fire. However, they were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the wings and turbines.
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In South Korea, an aircraft with 176 people on board caught fire before take-off. The Airbus burnt out completely. The cause of the fire is suspected to be a passenger's hand luggage.
Keystone-SDA
29.01.2025, 17:45
SDA
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A passenger plane has caught fire at the airport in the South Korean city of Busan. The Airbus A321 burned out completely.
The 169 passengers and seven crew members escaped to safety via emergency slides.
The power bank in one passenger's hand luggage is suspected to have caused the devastating fire.
Half of the fuselage was burnt, the aircraft was a total loss, fortunately all passengers and crew were rescued: An Airbus 321 has burnt out at Busan Airport. After the evacuation, the authorities reported seven injured people who suffered smoke inhalation and bruising.
The Air Busan aircraft was due to fly from Gimhae International Airport, the airport of the second-largest city of Busan, to Hong Kong on Tuesday evening local time when a fire broke out at the rear of the aircraft. According to the Ministry of Transportation, 169 passengers and seven crew members were evacuated to safety via emergency slides.
According to the ministry, almost half of the fuselage was burnt. However, the wings and engines on both sides of the aircraft were undamaged. The cause of the fire is still being investigated, a ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency.
Possible cause of the fire: a battery in hand luggage
While the authorities would not comment on the possible cause of the fire, the Yonhap news agency reported that the fire broke out after black smoke billowed out of a hand luggage compartment at the back of the plane. According to local media reports, a passenger's power bank in the overhead bin above the seats may have started the fire.
"It looks like the fire started when a passenger's portable battery, which was stowed in the overhead hand luggage, was compressed," the local newspaper "JoongAng Ilbo" quoted an unnamed person close to Air Busan as saying. A flight attendant initially asked the passengers to remain seated. He then tried to bring the flames under control with a fire extinguisher.
"As the smoke spread in the cabin, a passenger near the emergency exit opened the door and a flight attendant opened the opposite door," Yonhap quoted a passenger as saying. The evacuation then began. It was "chaotic and frightening".
Local media had published dramatic pictures on Tuesday showing the plane in flames. Thick smoke appeared to be coming from inside the plane.
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South Korea affected again
Transport Minister Park Sang Woo apologized on Wednesday for the fact that "another air accident has occurred" after the recent Jeju Air tragedy. The government sincerely apologizes to the passengers and the public.
At the end of December, the worst air accident in the history of the East Asian country occurred in South Korea. A Boeing 737-800 of the South Korean low-cost airline Jeju Air coming from Thailand made a belly landing at Muan Airport without its landing gear extended, overshot the runway, crashed into a concrete wall and burst into flames. 179 of the 181 passengers died, only two crew members survived.