A woman has spoken of her horror after her battery-powered headphones exploded on her face as she slept during a flight.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued a warning after the incident on a flight from Beijing to Melbourne, which left the woman with burns to her face and hands.

The passenger, who has not been named, said she fell asleep two hours into the flight, only to be woken when the headphones exploded.

She said: "As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face. I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck.

Image: The battery and its cover both melted and stuck to the floor near the woman

"I continued to feel burning so I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor.


"They were sparking and had small amounts of fire."

Flight attendants poured water on the headphones and placed them in a bucket at the back of the plane.

However, the battery and its cover had both melted and stuck to the floor near the woman.

The ATSB said fellow passengers "endured the smell of melted plastic, burnt electronics and burnt hair" for the remainder of the flight.

Image: The fire left the passenger with blisters on her hands

The woman, who was pictured with a blackened face and neck and blisters on her hands, added: "People were coughing and choking the entire way home".

The ATSB said the headphone battery "likely caught fire", adding: "As the range of products using batteries grows, the potential for in-flight issues increases."

A spokesperson for the authority said it was the first report of headphones catching fire in Australia, but there have been a number of other phone and device battery incidents.

Last year, a flight due to leave Sydney had to be evacuated when smoke was seen coming from a passenger's hand luggage. It was later found that lithium batteries had caught fire.

In the UK, a train was evacuated and several people were injured when a workman's drill overheated and sparked a fire last month.