Shocking video shows bright orange flames shooting out of a passenger’s carry-on bag stowed above the seats, turning a routine flight into a nightmare.
The footage, which has resurfaced and gone viral again this week, captures the chaos aboard Air China Flight CA139 as it cruised at 33,000 feet from Hangzhou, China, to Incheon, South Korea, on October 18, 2025.
Passengers can be seen staring in horror as fire bursts from the overhead compartment. Smoke quickly fills the cabin. Many whip out their phones to film the blaze instead of helping. One man stands up and appears to try dealing with the flames while a flight attendant in a red vest rushes down the aisle to take control.
“A lithium battery spontaneously ignited in a passenger’s carry-on luggage stored in the overhead bin,” Air China said in a statement after the incident.
The crew followed emergency procedures and quickly extinguished the fire. No one was injured. The Airbus A321 was diverted to Shanghai Pudong International Airport for a safe landing.
The flight had taken off from Hangzhou at 9:47 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Seoul at 12:20 p.m. Instead, it made an unscheduled stop in Shanghai after the lithium-ion battery thermal runaway.
Videos like this one are exactly why airlines hammer passengers about power banks, spare batteries, and electronic devices. Lithium batteries are banned from checked luggage because they can catch fire without warning, and once they do, they’re notoriously difficult to put out.
