An airline has banned a popular travel item after it caught fire and destroyed one of its planes on the runway.

When you think of essential travel items for a long-haul flight, you might think of headphones for those back-to-back movies, a travel pillow for some comfort, and a power bank to charge your devices whilst in the air.

But, following a horrific incident, South Korea’s Air Busan will no longer allow passengers to store power banks in overhead luggage bins after a recent in-flight fire.

This comes after one of the airline’s planes burst into flames on January 28 while preparing for takeoff to Hong Kong.

A flight attendant first detected the fire in an overhead luggage bin on the rear left-hand side of the plane, Air Busan reported.

Thankfully, there were no casualties and all those on board were safely evacuated.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is being led by South Korean authorities. But no cause has been confirmed yet.

According to experts, air accidents are nearly always caused by a combination of factors.

Starting Friday, passenger carry-on bags will be inspected at boarding gates and those not containing power banks will be tagged and allowed in overhead luggage bins.

The measures will be rolled out on trial routes before expanding to all flights, as per the airline.

Moreover, passengers will be required to keep their portable power banks on them so any overheating, smoke or fire can be spotted and handled immediately.

In response to the increase in overheating power banks, Air Busan said they also implementing more fire safety training for crew members and additional fire containment equipment on board.

Lithium batteries are a type of rechargeable battery found in power banks and other devices such as laptops, mobile phones, tablets and electronic cigarettes.

Global aviation standards require that they are not to be stored in checked-in luggage because they can start fires if they short circuit, either through damage or manufacturing faults.

As a response, cabin crew tend to have fire extinguishers and thermal containment boxes or bags to isolate the devices.

Furthermore, South Korea has announced plans to revamp its aviation safety system following two major air incidents just a month apart.

“In order to restore trust in our country’s aviation safety system, the government will make a determined effort to rebuild the aviation safety system from the ground up,” said Deputy Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Baek Won-kuk in a ministry statement.

Off-duty pilot took magic mushrooms and ‘tried to crash plane’ with 83 passengers on board

The pilot has been arrested on account of attempted murder after being under the influence of drugs

One off-duty pilot has faced trial after attempting to crash a plane under the influence of magic mushrooms, and he claimed that he was allegedly having a ‘nervous breakdown’.

There’s an immense amount of trust that passengers on a plane put into their pilot, as they’re trained to guide the flight out of a number of dangerous scenarios.

Heroics have allowed pilots to save passengers in unlikely situations, yet what do you do if your pilot doesn’t believe they’re actually flying the plane?

That’s what happened in the case of Joseph David Emerson, who had taken a “small amount of psilocybin” which is found in mushrooms two days prior to the flight in question, causing him to have a panic attack in a ‘dream-like’ state, as reported by ABC News.

Emerson’s attorneys explained: “Simply put: Captain Emerson thought he was in a dream; his actions were taken in a single-minded effort to wake up from that dream and return home to his family.”

It began with Emerson in the flight deck jump seat within the cockpit, where he is described as engaging in ‘casual conversation’ with his co-pilots.

This quickly went south though as he attempted to pull down the two red fire handles which would have stopped fuel from reaching the engines and effectively crashed the plane.

Upon reaching for the handles, Emerson allegedly remarked: “I’m not OK,” and he had to be wrestled away by his coworkers and restrained at the rear of the plane to avoid any other incidents.

This led to Emerson claiming that he was having a “nervous breakdown” to officers upon his arrest, and he was initially charged with 83 charges of attempted murder and one charge of endangering aircraft in the first degree.

These charges have since been downgraded by the grand jury from attempted murder to ‘recklessly endangering another person’.

Emerson’s attorneys revealed in reference to the attempted murder charges that they “were never appropriate in this case because Captain Emerson never intended to hurt another person or put anyone at risk – he just wanted to return home to his wife and children.”

He was granted bail under a number of strict conditions which included a $50,000 security bond, a ban from taking any intoxicants (including alcohol), and a rule that prohibited him from coming within 30 feet of any operable aircraft.

Emerson is also required to attend mental health services in order to come to terms with his alleged ‘nervous breakdown’, and there won’t be any incidents like this again in the future.

‘Deeply concerning’ footage shows chaos as passengers are forced to evacuate plane after a fire breaks out

A passenger’s laptop burst into flames on a flight due to take off for Miami last week

Shocking footage has emerged which shows the chaos of passengers being forced to evacuate a plane after a fire broke out onboard.

It’s probably one of our worst nightmares when stepping foot inside an aircraft but it became a reality for the people boarding their flight at San Francisco Airport.

The plane was due to take off for Miami in the evening of July 12 when people noticed that someone’s bag appeared to be on fire.

According to officials, it was actually a passenger’s laptop that set alight on the American Airlines Flight 2045.

A video uploaded to The Press Democrat YouTube channel, @ThePressDemocrat, illustrates the chaos that ensued onboard during the emergency evacuation.

After finally touching down in Miami the following day, some of the passengers spoke to 7News about their ordeal.

One passenger, Samyuktha Nair, said: “Some announcement from the pilot said, ‘Fire, fire,’ and, ‘Mayday, mayday, fire, fire.’”

Another passenger, Maria Cheirano, recalled: “And suddenly people started pushing, and they were like, ‘There’s a fire,’ so the flight attendants told us to remain calm.”

“We were already smelling strange, like cable burnt,” added passenger Oliver Jankai.

Jankai revealed the backpack that went up in flames was right under his seat as it belonged to the someone sitting behind him.

He went on to say: “There was this backpack with the power bank in it, and this, it was like a flame up in the air, and at some point, I was jumping up.”

His son, Jan Jankai, said he helped his father extinguish the fire as fast as he could.

“We tried to jump on the bag, so we could maybe get out of the fire, but that didn’t help,” he said. “We had to do something, so we just threw it at the back of the plane.”

Another passenger described the commotion as a ‘light stampede’ and recalled how people were screaming ‘fire in the back’.

In a statement, a spokesperson for American Airlines said: “During boarding of American Airlines flight 2045 with service from San Francisco (SFO) to Miami (MIA) smoke was reported from inside a customer’s bag.

“The bag was quickly removed by our crew members and all customers exited the aircraft. We thank our crew members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire, but believe it may have been due to a lithium-ion battery.

Officials reported that three people were injured in the incident but none were seriously hurt.