South Korea Identifies Battery Pack as Potential Cause of Air Busan Fire

SEOUL—A spare power bank may have caused the fire that engulfed an Air Busan plane in January, according to South Korea’s transport ministry’s interim investigation results.

The statement said scorch marks on the debris of a power bank suggest that the blaze may have started due to insulation breakdown inside the battery.

However, investigators are uncertain about the cause of the breakdown at this time.

<>Lithium batteries in devices like laptops, mobile phones, electronic cigarettes, and power banks can generate smoke, fire, or extreme heat when manufacturing faults or damage cause them to short circuit.

No issues with the plane’s own electrical systems have been found, as per the statement.

The fire, which was detected on Jan. 28 in a luggage bin above row 30 on the left side of the plane, happened about 20 minutes after the delayed flight to Hong Kong from Busan in South Korea was scheduled to depart.

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All 170 passengers and six crew were safely evacuated from the Airbus A321ceo plane that was destroyed by the fire.

South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board is overseeing the investigation. The update on Friday is not the final accident report, which is required to be produced by states within a year of an incident, based on global aviation standards.

The aviation industry has long acknowledged lithium batteries as a safety risk, prompting rules to be tightened periodically in response to incidents.

Effective March 1, South Korea modified regulations on carrying batteries on flights, instructing passengers to keep power banks and e-cigarettes with them and not in overhead bins, as well as not charging devices during the flight.

Last year, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration recorded three incidents of overheating lithium batteries on planes every two weeks globally, compared to fewer than one per week in 2018.