Norwegian investigators are advising airlines to carry fireproof gloves in the passenger cabin as part of the kit for dealing with lithium-battery fires from personal devices.
The advisory follows an incident in which a mobile phone ignited in the forward cabin of a Wizz Air Airbus A320 during top-of-descent before its approach to Bergen.
Norwegian investigation authority SHK credits the crew with handling the situation “quickly and in a very good way”.
The cabin crew equipped themselves with water, hand-held halon extinguishers, fireproof gloves and breathing equipment.
They also informed the pilots about the situation, and a ‘Mayday’ call was transmitted.
Water was used to cool the phone, causing the fire and smoke to stop, before it was secured in a metal container and placed in an aft lavatory compartment. The container was filled with water and monitored for the remainder of the flight.
SHK says the phone’s owner suffered minor burns while trying to remove the battery during the 11 June 2022 event involving aircraft HA-LWZ.
It points out that protective gloves enabled the crew to handle the device without delay, but says these are not necessarily specified in the requirements for standard cabin emergency kits.
Wizz Air includes heat-resistant gloves in its battery-fire kit, as well as special extinguishers and a fire-resistant containment bag, plus an extra pair of fireproof gloves in the cabin.
While the inquiry has not made any formal safety recommendations, it advises that operators equip both the cabin and cockpit with easily-accessible protective gloves and that crews regularly undergo procedure training for lithium battery thermal runaway events.
