October 24, 2025: An international flight from China was forced to make an unscheduled landing after a lithium battery inside a passenger’s carry-on luggage caught fire.

The latest such incident to involve an airline battery fire happened on an Air China flight from Hangzhou, in east China’s Zhejiang province to Seoul in South Korea on October 18, the state Xinhua news agency reported.

After the flight took off from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, a lithium battery stored in the carry-on luggage in an overhead bin spontaneously combusted.

The plane was diverted to Shanghai Pudong International Airport. According to Xinhua, the crew handled the situation and no injuries were reported.

Batteries International reported earlier this year that thermal runaway incidents on aircraft had soared to a five-year high, according to a report by the safety and compliance organization Underwriters Laboratories (UL).

Incidents increased by nearly 30% between 2019 and 2023 with an average of two reported a week to UL Standards & Engagement’s (ULSE) thermal runaway incident program.

In February, South Korea announced a tightening of rules for power banks and e-cigarettes carried on airplanes in the wake of a fire on an Air Busan flight. The lithium battery devices were also banned from storage in overhead bins.