South Korea authorities revealed on Wednesday that an Airbus plane had caught fire at Busan airport, injuring at least seven passengers on Tuesday night. According to local media, the fire may have been ignited by a portable battery that was kept in the overhead bin.
According to the nation’s transport ministry, the Airbus A321, which was scheduled to depart from Gimhae International Airport in southeast Busan for Hong Kong, caught fire in the back area, forcing the evacuation of all 176 people on board. The total number of people evacuated included 169 passengers and seven employees and flight attendants.
However, initially the authorities had reported of three injuries, but on Wednesday they changed it to seven. The ministry also stated that one of them is presently in the hospital.
It stated that although the accident caused over half of the fuselage to burn, the wings and engines on both sides of the aircraft were unharmed, and that the cause of the fire is still being looked into.
The ministry spokesperson told AFP, “It is unclear when we will be able to disclose the investigation findings on the cause of last night’s fire.”
The jet was enveloped in flames, and heavy smoke appeared to billow from the plane’s cabin in dramatic photos and videos captured by local media on Tuesday night.
The upper half of the fuselage was burned away, leaving a massive hole, according to images taken Wednesday morning.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the incident started to spread after black smoke appeared from the overhead compartment in the back seat, but the ministry declined to comment on the source of the fire.
Local daily JoongAng Ilbo cited an unnamed person affiliated with Air Busan and reported, “It seems that a fire broke out when a passenger’s portable battery, stored in the overhead bin as carry-on luggage, became compressed.”
In addition, Yonhap quoted a passenger as recounting, “As the smoke filled the cabin, a passenger seated near the emergency exit opened the door, and the flight attendant opened the opposite one, allowing others to start evacuating.” The passenger added, “It was … chaotic and terrifying.”
Last month, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800, traveling from Thailand to Muan on December 29, crashed and erupted into a blaze after slamming into a concrete barrier, causing the biggest aviation accident to ever occur in South Korea.
Of the 181 passengers and crew members on board, 179 were killed in that incident.
South Korea’s transport minister Park Sang-woo said in a statement on Wednesday, “In the wake of the Jeju Air passenger aircraft tragedy, an additional aviation accident has taken place, and we feel deeply sorry for the passengers on board and the public.”
