A WOMAN who was traveling to Melbourne has suffered burns to her face after the pair of battery-operated headphones she was wearing exploded mid-flight.

    The woman was sleeping two hours into her flight from Beijing to Australia when she said she heard a loud explosion, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

    “As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face,” she said.

    “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.”

    The headphones belonged to the female passenger.

    Pictures show the passenger with black soot all over her cheeks, mouth and nose.

    Her hand was also burned and has now blistered, and her hair and eyebrows were singed.

    The battery and its cover melted into the airplane floor.

    The smell of burnt plastic and hair filled the plane for the rest of the flight, the woman said.

    “People were coughing and choking the entire way home,” she said.

    Battery-powered devices on planes should be kept in approved storage while they’re not being used, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

    Spare batteries should be stored in carry-on luggage and if a passenger cannot find their battery-operated device, they should call the cabin crew for help and not move their seat.

    An Australian Transport Safety Bureau told Daily Mail Australia there have been several incidents with lithium batteries during flights.

    “We’ve had previous experiences in mobile phones, tablets and so on,” the man said.

    (SD-Agencies)