A Woman's Headphones Exploded In Her Ears Mid-flight

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

This article was originally published on HelloGiggles.com.

As if there isn't enough to worry about while flying-rough landings, turbulence, sometimes exploding phones-there's now one more thing to fret over: your headphones. Yep, you read that right. On a recent flight from Beijing to Melbourne, a woman's battery-operated headphones exploded as she slept, burning parts of her face and hands (and, yes, also waking her up).

Feeling a smidge terrified? We're right there with you!

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau first reported the frightening incident, and has since issued a warning about using headphones and other battery-operated devices in-flight. Apparently, certain types of batteries do not fare well at sky-high altitudes, and the result can be a fiery explosion.

While she remains unnamed by the ATSB, the woman wearing said headphones described the event after being jolted awake by the explosion in her ear (agh!), And it's even more terrifying than we imagined (and trust us, what we imagined was not pretty).

"As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face," she said of the incident, which happened two hours into the flight. "I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck."

“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. As I went to stamp my foot on them the flight attendants were already there with a bucket of water to pour on them. They put them into the bucket at the rear of the plane.”

By the time the fire was put out, the battery had apparently melted to the floor and the plane smelled of burnt plastic for the remainder of the flight.

Since the issue appears to have been sparked by the batteries, it would seem your standard-issue Apple headphones and other non-battery operated earphones are safe for now. It hasn't been reported which earphones the woman was using.

If you do own battery-operated headphones, please take heed and leave them at home before your next flight!