A lithium battery in a passenger’s carry-on luggage spontaneously combusted during an Air China flight from the Chinese city of Hangzhou to South Korea’s Incheon on Saturday, according to the airline.
The airline said the luggage was placed in the overhead bin at the time and crew members immediately responded to the situation. It was not immediately clear whether the battery that caught fire was in the device itself or in some additional device.
Videos shared on social media showed the overhead bin on fire, sending smoke into the cabin and panicking passengers.
The plane had to make an emergency landing at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. There were no injuries, the airline said.
The fire comes months after China imposed an emergency ban on some portable batteries on flights. The ban, which took effect in June, came after a regulator warned about the growing dangers of batteries to flights.
Millions of lithium batteries, which can be found in some cellphones, laptops, chargers and electronic cigarettes, have been recalled in recent years because of potential fire hazards.
According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, batteries can spontaneously catch fire if they are damaged or short-circuited.
As of June 30 this year, the FAA recorded 38 cases involving lithium batteries that caused smoke, fire or excessive heat on passenger and cargo flights. Last year, the agency had registered 89 similar cases.
Governments and airlines have tightened regulations on batteries this year, limiting where they can be stored on planes.
In the United States, these batteries are now banned from most checked luggage unless the equipment containing them is completely shut down.
In China, when the country said the batteries posed a safety threat, it banned passengers from carrying on domestic flights portable batteries that are not clearly marked with Chinese safety certifications.
However, the new rule does not apply to removable batteries. The airline said Saturday’s fire was caused by one of these batteries.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
