The lives of more than 300 passengers aboard a KLM plane were recently risked when a Power Bank exploded in flames in the air.

But as it happens, the power bank which caught fire aboard the Royal Dutch Airline flight belonged to Camiel Eurlings, the former Chief Executive Officer of KLM.

The incident forced the aircraft to turn around after 5.5 hours in the sky.

Multiple passengers on board the flight confirmed that the former Chief Executive Officer of KLM, Eurlings, was charging his power bank, against the airline’s rules, when the electronic gadget exploded.

Eurlings reportedly suffered minor injuries.

KLM allows power banks on its planes, but passengers are not allowed to use the electric gadgets or charge them on board during flights.

The flight from Amsterdam to Curaçao turned around above the Atlantic Ocean and landed back at Schiphol at 8:40 p.m. on Thursday the 17th of September.

A passenger who was seated near Eurlings witnessed the event.

“There was suddenly a loud bang,” said the passenger, who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Immediately after, there was a fire; large flames shot up from above the seat. The bang was the power bank exploding and instantly catching fire.”

She said that everyone had a massive fright, but the cabin crew reacted very quickly and reassured everyone.

The passenger ​stated that Eurlings was “terribly shaken.”

Having been a top official of the Royal Dutch Airline, it is rather strange that Eurlings should be the one to break the KLM rules.

“He feels awful about the situation and all the inconvenience caused to everyone. He was extremely upset,” another passenger stated.

She added that it was “incredibly stupid” that KLM’s own former CEO was the one who made this mistake.

“Especially when you ought to be intimately familiar with the rules, yet you break them anyway.”

And members of the cabin crew confirmed that the person involved was Camiel Eurlings.

“Now, if you’re just an ordinary passenger, a slip-up like that can happen. But when you happen to be someone who used to enforce the company’s internal rules, this is really quite peculiar.”

Anyway, the KLM management was compelled to pay for all 322 passengers to spend the night at a hotel.

They later departed for Curaçao on a different plane on Friday morning.