A plane made an emergency landing in Hong Kong when a power bank exploded filling the cabin with smoke.

The budget airline was flying from Boracay island in the Philippines to Shanghai in China when the electronic device exploded mid-air on Monday evening, February 19.

Terrified passengers covered their mouths as the fumes engulfed the cabin of the Airbus A320 operated by Royal Air Philippines.

Flustered cabin crew scrambled to find the issue and reportedly took away a lithium battery power bank that had been connected to a tablet computer.

Footage captured by flier Anna Curzon shows the plane shortly before it made the emergency landing at the Hong Kong International Airport at 9:05pm local time, where fire crews were waiting.

The passenger said: ‘We'd been in the air for about an hour when the fire happened. I was terrified because I thought the plane was crashing. I could only think of my little son and how he would miss me. I was so relieved when the plane landed.'

A second passenger from Peking said they were sleeping when they were woken up by the explosion.

Miss Yang said: 'I suddenly saw a thick smoke, and then there was a pungent burning smell. I was stunned and called my husband. He asked if there was a fire. At that moment, I was really scared and my mind was empty. I was white with fear and my heart was pounding.

'At that time, the flight attendant came immediately, but he was relatively calm and dealt with it. I heard that a passenger used a power bank for his tablet and it caught fire.'

The cabin crew onboard flight RW602 found the source of the smoke and secured the area before the pilots radioed for permission to make an emergency landing.

Fire crews and ambulance paramedics were waiting and boarded the plane to make safety checks. There were no injuries.

Engineers checked the single-aisle aircraft before it was allowed to continue its journey to the mainland, finally landing around three hours late at the Shanghai-Pudong International Airport at 12.30 am on Tuesday, February 20.