Battery’s owner wasn’t the first to notice is was about to catch fire.

Usually, flights between Okinawa and Tokyo are pretty unremarkable. It’s only about a two-and-a-half-hour trip, which is barely enough time to watch a movie or put a dent in a novel, and the flightpath is almost entirely over the open waters of the Pacific, meaning there’s little noteworthy scenery to gaze out the window at.

However, things got unexpectedly eventful on ANA Flight 994 on Thursday morning, which left Naha Airport, Okinawa’s main air hub, at around 11 a.m., bound for Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Shortly after takeoff, one of the 339 passengers onboard noticed smoke coming from the carryon bag of the person next to them, which was stowed under the seat in front of the owner at the time.

As is becoming a frequent occurrence, the source was a mobile battery, which had heated up and was starting to smoke, with one passenger describing the emanating smell as being like someone had struck a match. Thankfully, the smoldering was put out before producing any open flames, and after radioing in with a report on what had happened, the flight continued on to Haneda, landing as scheduled that afternoon. The cabin crew also informed the passengers about what had taken place, and no injuries or panicking resulted. It’s unclear if the battery had been actively charging a device at the time it began smoking.

The incident comes just days after a traveler’s mobile battery caught fire inside of hotel in Kyoto, prompting the pre-dawn evacuation of the more than 1,000 guests who were inside at the time.

With smartphones increasingly taking the place of guidebooks, maps, and cameras, as well as being a source of in-flight entertainment, travelers today have an understandable desire for charging options that don’t require plugging their devices into a wall socket. With mobile battery fires happening more and more often, though, it’s also more important than ever to be diligent when using or transporting them, and if incidents like the one onboard the ANA flight continue, we might see Japanese airlines impose even stricter rules about flying with mobile batteries than the ones they added just a few months ago.

Source: FNN Prime Online, Nitele News
Top image: Pakutaso
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