Ethiopian B738 enroute on Nov 17th 2015, lithium batteries in passenger bag overheat

Last Update: November 19, 2015 / 22:04:21 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Nov 17, 2015

Classification
Incident

Airline
Ethiopian Airlines

Flight number
ET-829

Departure
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Destination
Gaborone, Botswana

Aircraft Registration
ET-AQO

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration ET-AQO performing flight ET-829 from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to Gaborone (Botswana), was enroute about three hours into the five hour flight when white smoke began to develop in the cabin. Cabin crew identified a passenger's handbag as source of the smoke and discharged a fire extinguisher onto and into the hand bag, the smoke however continued. Another passenger came to help, opened the bag and noticed that two smartphone Lithium batteries had been tied together and one of them was melting down causing heat damage to the surroundings and the bag. The passenger separated the batteries, the batteries were subsequently cooled down, and the smoke ceased. The aircraft continued to Gaborone and landed there without further incident.

The aircraft was able to continue for the next sector to Cape Town (South Africa) on schedule and delivered the helping passenger travelling home in Cape Town on time.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Nov 17, 2015

Classification
Incident

Airline
Ethiopian Airlines

Flight number
ET-829

Departure
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Destination
Gaborone, Botswana

Aircraft Registration
ET-AQO

Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800

ICAO Type Designator
B738

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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