Northwest Airlines Flight 957

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Northwest Airlines Flight 957
Summary
Date   October 28, 1998
Type   Hazardous materials leak (Flight 957) / in-flight fire (Flight 7)
Site   Memphis, Tennessee
Fatalities   0
Injuries   14 some passengers may have unrecorded injuries
Aircraft
Aircraft type   unknown
Operator   Northwest Airlines
Tail number   unknown
Passengers   unknown
Crew   unknown
Survivors   all

Northwest Airlines Flight 957 was a scheduled flight from Orlando, Florida to Memphis, Tennessee. On October 28, 1998 seven and a half litres (two US gallons) of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) leaked into the cargo hold during the flight. The leak came from an undeclared shipment of two one-gallon (about four litres) containers inside an ice chest belonging to one of the passengers. The leak was not discovered until cargo handlers in Memphis began to unload the baggage on Flight 957. Thinking that the spilled liquid was water, the cargo handlers ignored it and transferred some of the baggage to other Northwest Airlines passenger-carrying flights, including Flight 7, which then departed for Seattle, Washington. When Flight 7 arrived in Seattle, two bags in a cargo compartment were smoldering, including one that had come from Flight 957.

Thirteen people in Memphis required treatment because their hands had been exposed to hydrogen peroxide, and the person who took the bags off Flight 7 was treated for inhalation of fumes. No one was seriously injured.

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