Northwest Airlines Flight 957

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 35% hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) solution leaked into the cargo hold during the flight. The leak came from an undeclared shipment of two one-gallon (about four-liter) 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.

Northwest still uses the Flight 957 designation on the same route.

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