Terrifying moment fire erupts inside a plane cabin in mid-air as panicked passengers rush to help the flight crew
Flight VA1528, which departed Sydney this morning, had begun its descent into Hobart around 9am when smoke began filling the Boeing 737-8FE cabin.
Witnesses believe a lithium battery in the overhead luggage compartment was to blame, although the airline has yet to confirm the cause of the fire.
In shocking footage, smoke can be seen escaping from the overheard luggage compartment as the crew sprang into action.
The crew opened the locker to discover a lithium battery on fire with passengers revealing they saw flames leap out of the compartment when it was opened.
Initial attempts to control the flames with an onboard fire extinguisher were reportedly unsuccessful.
Cabin crew eventually extinguished the fire with water.
Passengers can be seen jumping out of the seats in the alarming footage, obtained by Pulse Tasmania, of the incident as the fire was discovered by the crew.
Once the flight had landed in Hobart, airport firefighters boarded the plane and removed the bag containing the battery.
Hobart Airport COO Matt Cocker said one person received medical attention by paramedics for suspected smoke inhalation.
'The outbound Virgin flight back to Sydney is currently delayed, however all other operations at Hobart Airport are running as usual,' he said.
Virgin Australia confirmed flight and cabin crew were checked over by paramedics as a precaution before being given the all-clear.
'Safety is always our highest priority. We appreciate the swift and professional response of our flight and cabin crew, as well as the support of Airservices Australia firefighters,' a Virgin Australia spokesperson said.
A replacement aircraft was found for the return flight, which was delayed by about five hours, while the Boeing 737-8FE aircraft was assessed for damage.
No other flights at Hobart Airport were impacted by the fire.
Sam McCambridge, who works for a rental car company at Hobart Airport, said two different groups of passengers told him cabin crew extinguished a fire after realising 'a lithium battery or some sort of charging device had caught fire in someone's bag'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Like something you see in a movie': Trump cuts stir fears of more pipeline ruptures
On a clear February evening in 2020, a smell of rotten eggs started to waft over the small town of Satartia, Mississippi, followed by a green-tinged cloud. A load roar could be heard near the highway that passes the town. Soon, nearby residents started to feel dizzy, some even passed out or lay on the ground shaking, unable to breathe. Cars, inexplicably, cut out, their drivers leaving them abandoned with the doors open on the highway. 'It was like something you see in a movie, like a zombie apocalypse,' said Jerry Briggs, a fire coordinator from nearby Warren county who was tasked with knocking on the doors of residents to get them to evacuate. Briggs and most of his colleagues were wearing breathing apparatus – one deputy who didn't do so almost collapsed and had to be carried away. Unbeknown to residents and emergency responders, a pipeline carrying carbon dioxide near Satartia had ruptured and its contents were gushing out, robbing oxygen from people and internal combustion engines in cars alike. 'We had no idea what it was,' said Briggs, who moved towards the deafening noise of the pipeline leak with a colleague, their vehicle spluttering, when they saw a car containing three men, unconscious and barely breathing. 'We just piled them on top of each other and got them out because it's debatable if they survived if we waited,' said Briggs. Ultimately, the men survived and were hospitalized along with around 45 other people. More than 200 people were evacuated. 'It was like we were all being smothered,' said Jack Willingham, director of emergency management in Yazoo county, where Satartia is situated. 'It was a pretty damn crazy day,' The near-fatal disaster was a spur to Joe Biden's administration to, for the first time, create a rule demanding a high standard of safety for the transport of carbon dioxide, a small but growing ingredient of pipelines increasingly captured from drilling sites and power plants. 'There's been a lot of concern about safety among states that permit CO2 pipelines,' said Tristan Brown, who was acting administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials and Safety Administration (PHMSA) until January. 'Stronger standards like the ones we drafted last year have the dual benefit of addressing permitting concerns while also improving safety for the public.' But shortly before the new safety regulations were due to come into force early this year, Donald Trump's new administration swiftly killed them off. A crackdown on gas leaks from pipelines was also pared back. This was followed by an exodus of senior officials from PHMSA, which oversees millions of miles of US pipelines. Five top leaders, including the head of the office of pipeline safety, have departed amid Trump's push to shrink the federal workforce. Broader staff cuts have hit the regulator, too, with PHMSA preparing for 612 employees in the coming year, down from 658 last year. There are currently 174 pipeline inspectors within this workforce, PHMSA said, which is 30% less than the number of inspectors Congress required it to have when authorizing the agency's budget in 2020. These 174 inspectors have the task of scrutinizing 3.3 million miles of pipe across the US, or around 19,000 miles per inspector. The indiscriminate nature of cuts at PHMSA 'has real world consequences in terms of undermining the basic foundations of safety for the public,' Brown said. 'A lot of expertise has left and that is worrying,' said one departed PHSMA staffer. 'The attitude from Doge [the 'department of government efficiency'] was 'your job is meaningless, go and work in the private sector.' Many people have thought they can't go through this for four years.' America has more miles of pipeline – carrying oil, propane, gas and other materials – than it does in federal highways and a federal regulator that was already overstretched. Brown said typically just one or two people have the responsibility of inspecting America's transported nuclear waste while a mere dozen staffers have to oversee more than 170 liquified natural gas plants. Each state has its own pipeline regulatory system and inspectors, too, but PHMSA is responsible for writing and enforcing national standards and is often the one to prosecute violations by any of the 3,000 businesses that currently operate pipelines. However, enforcement actions have dropped steeply under the Trump administration, which has initiated just 40 new cases this year, compared to 197 in all of 2024. 'All of these things will contribute to an increase in failures,' said Bill Caram, executive director of the nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust. 'A strong regulator helps prevent awful tragedies and I worry we could see increased incidents now. The drop in enforcement is very troubling.' 'Everyone at PHMSA is focused on safety, there's not a lot of fat to trim, so it's hard to imagine that any reduction in force won't impact its ability to fulfill its duties. I can't believe they were ever prepared to lose so many people at once.' In some contexts, US pipelines can be viewed as very safe. A few dozen people are killed or injured each year from pipeline malfunctions but the alternatives to moving around vast quantities of toxic or flammable liquids and gases aren't risk-free. Trains can come off their tracks and spill their loads, as seen in East Palestine, Ohio, while the death toll on American roads from accidents is typically about 40,000 people a year. 'There is some super duper bad stuff that happens on the interstates,' said Briggs. Still, as Caram points out, there is a significant pipeline incident almost every day in the US, ranging from globs of oil spilling onto farmland to raging fireballs from ignited gas. Many of the pipelines snaking under Americans' feet are aging and need replacement, which can lead to failures. There has been a worrying uptick in deaths from pipeline accidents recently, too, with 30 people killed across 2023 and 2024, the most fatalities over a two-year period since 2010/11. 'This is not the time to look at deregulatory efforts, this is not time to look to save money and deregulate,' Caram said. 'The overall state of pipeline safety is really languishing with poor performance. We are not making good progress and we need stronger regulations.' A PHSMA spokesman said the agency is 'laser-focused on its mission of protecting people and the environment while unleashing American energy safely' and is in the process of appointing 'well-qualified individuals' to fill the departed senior officials. 'PHMSA has initiated more pipeline-related rule making actions since the beginning of this administration than in the entire four years of the preceding administration,' the spokesman added. 'Each of these rule makings represents an opportunity for us to promote pipeline safety by modernizing our code and encouraging innovation and the use of new technology.' The agency spokesman added that pipeline firm Denbury, now owned by Exxon, paid $2.8m in civil penalties for its regulatory violations in Satartia and agreed to take corrective actions. PHMSA also warned other operators to monitor the movement of earth and rock, to avoid a repeat of the Satartia incident where sodden soils shifted following days of rain and crunched into the pipeline, severing it. The leak was only confirmed after an emergency responder called Denbury to ascertain what happened, more than 40 minutes after the rupture, according to the PHMSA investigation. Communications between the company and the emergency services has improved since, according to both Briggs and Willingham. Denbury was contacted for comment. Today, Sartartia bears few visible scars. The pipeline is obscured from passing view by trees and blankets of kudzu, the invasive vine. The town's sleepy, tree-lined streets contains a micro town hall, as big as a tool shed, a couple of small churches, a single shuttered store. On a recent summer day a single person was outside, contentedly cutting the grass, as if that harrowing day in 2020 was a surreal dream. 'We will see how it goes with the changes, I hope it doesn't affect the safety we've worked so hard to get,' Willingham said of the cuts at PHMSA. 'We don't want a day like we had in Satartia again. In 35 years in emergency service I have seen some crazy stuff but that was a wild, wild day.'
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Terrifying moment fire erupts inside a plane cabin in mid-air as panicked passengers rush to help the flight crew
Passengers have been left terrified after a fire broke out in an overhead locker on a Virgin Australia flight landing in Tasmania. Flight VA1528, which departed Sydney this morning, had begun its descent into Hobart around 9am when smoke began filling the Boeing 737-8FE cabin. Witnesses believe a lithium battery in the overhead luggage compartment was to blame, although the airline has yet to confirm the cause of the fire. In shocking footage, smoke can be seen escaping from the overheard luggage compartment as the crew sprang into action. The crew opened the locker to discover a lithium battery on fire with passengers revealing they saw flames leap out of the compartment when it was opened. Initial attempts to control the flames with an onboard fire extinguisher were reportedly unsuccessful. Cabin crew eventually extinguished the fire with water. Passengers can be seen jumping out of the seats in the alarming footage, obtained by Pulse Tasmania, of the incident as the fire was discovered by the crew. Once the flight had landed in Hobart, airport firefighters boarded the plane and removed the bag containing the battery. Hobart Airport COO Matt Cocker said one person received medical attention by paramedics for suspected smoke inhalation. 'The outbound Virgin flight back to Sydney is currently delayed, however all other operations at Hobart Airport are running as usual,' he said. Virgin Australia confirmed flight and cabin crew were checked over by paramedics as a precaution before being given the all-clear. 'Safety is always our highest priority. We appreciate the swift and professional response of our flight and cabin crew, as well as the support of Airservices Australia firefighters,' a Virgin Australia spokesperson said. A replacement aircraft was found for the return flight, which was delayed by about five hours, while the Boeing 737-8FE aircraft was assessed for damage. No other flights at Hobart Airport were impacted by the fire. Sam McCambridge, who works for a rental car company at Hobart Airport, said two different groups of passengers told him cabin crew extinguished a fire after realising 'a lithium battery or some sort of charging device had caught fire in someone's bag'.
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
Murray Watt urged to intervene after accusations proposed Queensland coalmine clearing land in greater glider habitat
Conservationists have called on the environment minister, Murray Watt, to intervene after satellite images appear to show clearing in threatened species habitat at the site of a proposed coalmine in Queensland. Images and drone footage obtained by the Queensland Conservation Council over the past two months appear to show large areas of bushland cleared at the site of Magnetic South's proposed Gemini coalmine near Dingo in central Queensland. Public documents released under freedom of information laws show the environment department told the company in 2022 it strongly recommended referral of the project to consider whether it required an assessment for potentially significant impacts on the Brigalow ecological community, and species including the greater glider, koala and bridled nail-tail wallaby. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The council wrote to Watt last month alerting him and the federal environment department's compliance unit to what it claimed was the removal of 'approximately 200 hectares of greater glider habitat' since late May in an area earmarked for an open coal pit. The council wrote it had 'urgent concerns' that construction of the mine might have commenced without referral of the project for an assessment under Australia's environmental laws. The proposed metallurgical coal project, which would produce up to 1.9m tonnes of coal a year, has attracted concerns in the past due to a Queensland government decision not to require an environmental impact statement and opposition from graziers. In its letter to Watt, the Queensland Conservation Council asked whether the alleged clearing had been approved by the federal government and whether the government needed to take enforcement action. The council wrote it believed the clearing could be unlawful and that it expected Watt's department 'to take urgent action accordingly to protect this culturally and ecologically significant place'. The council's coal and gas campaigner, Charlie Cox, said Watt needed to urgently step in. 'There is now drone footage, satellite imagery, and traditional owners on the ground all suggesting that yet another coal corporation has taken it upon themselves to start building their mine without the relevant federal approvals,' she said. Cox called on the minister to use enforcement powers to stop the alleged clearing and to call the project in for a federal assessment. 'Murray Watt is committed to reforming our environment laws that are woefully failing nature, he needs to actually enforce the existing laws too,' she said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Zhanae Dodd is a Ghungalu woman and founder of Guyala Yimba, an Indigenous human rights consultancy. Ghungalu custodians have a camp at the proposed mine site, where they have been conducting cultural ceremony since early this month. 'We're out there engaging in ceremony and keeping a fire burning,' Dodd said. 'We need to preserve these sites because on our country already there are that many mines destroying country, why do we need one more?' In a letter the council received on Friday, the federal environment department said it was 'aware of the alleged actions and potential impacts to threatened species and ecological communities protected by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act'. The department said it was engaging with Magnetic South 'regarding their obligations under the act'. A spokesperson for the federal environment department said 'the department is in receipt of the allegations'. 'As the investigation is ongoing the department will not provide further comment.' Guardian Australia sought comment from Watt and Magnetic South.
