There have been cases of power banks exploding or emitting smoke during flights, filling the cabin with smoke and leading to emergency landings. I can only imagine how unbearable the smoke would be. If this happened over the ocean with the nearest airport hours away, what would the course of action be?
Risks of Power Banks Exploding Midflight
johnfuller on 19/12/2024 - 08:28
Last edited 20/12/2024 - 11:42
Last edited 20/12/2024 - 11:42
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@johnfuller: A swollen lithium battery has nothing to do with the reduced air pressure inside a plane. They are too very different things. You have an entire world of information at your fingertips.
@brendanm: This guy has to be trolling now. Anyone who is truly this thick IRL would barely be able to function in a modern society and all the jobs for holding the Stop/Slow signs for roadworks seem to be reserved for attractive young women (who are also no doubt brighter than this sample anyway).
can you guarantee yours has no air inside?
Yes because if there is any air inside it stops becoming a battery and starts becoming fire.
what happens when a lithium battery starts to inflate is it air or something else?
That's gases from the battery, not air.
you mean the 100,000mAh ebay specials are not safe?
who knows? at one stage they banned samsung models from flights, no?
Yeah, but Samsung gear is known for catching fire, even their washing machines!
Risks of Power Banks Exploding Midflight
3.7%
probably even lower than that
what is the probability that it is lower?
ok thanks
Ah yes, I see you know your numbers well.
Yes, I am a numerophile…
So was Bob Marley
This is the reason why devices with lithium has to be in carry ons thus can be dealt with, not one down there with checked bags.
If they're so safe, why don't they allow larger lithium power banks? 160Wh and larger some airlines even have a lower restriction than this
They are safe. I would wager there are hundreds of thousands, possibly millions in homes around Australia right now and not bursting into flames.
The problem is if a battery pack self combusts in the cargo hold it may trigger a fire that cannot be suppressed by the plane's systems. In carry on luggage it's much safer, but we still don't want enormous battery packs being carried on board and being crushed between seats. A limit has to be placed somewhere, otherwise people would happily carry car jump starter packs with them on long flights.
and ride those wheely thingies up and down the aisle… I'm glad they banned those! yells at clouds out the window
tell me what is fire suppression for lithium batteries on a plane.
It's about time you went and asked all your incredibly obtuse questions to chatgpt instead of human beings.
I would wager there are hundreds of thousands, possibly millions in homes around Australia right now and not bursting into flames.
Bold claim, any evidence?
Because you need to draw a line somewhere…
Things don’t magically get expeditiously dangerous for every wh increase, its just capped at a reasonable capacity that is practical and safe in case of emergency…
Is it a spicy pillow? In general, batteries don't explode because they're designed to puff up and stretch.
Remember when you had an old Nokia phone? Everyone used to keep using the batteries until they had no charge. Almost everyone I knew had a puffy battery because they were relatively expensive to replace back then. Every kid had a spicy pillow!
Remember Snake, anyone?
The batteries were cheap and easy to swap, people kept them because the phones were such low power devices back then that "only" 2-3 days of battery was considered poor. I would charge my phone like every 7 days, that monochrome LCD display took nothing to run. Curious what the battery life of those e-ink display phones is like.
Yeah, you are right, I remember the generic batteries I got as a replacement were around $30. I can't remember how much the genuine ones cost.
My memory is a bit fuzzy.
I couldn't figure out why so many people kept their old batteries but back then we didn't hear any stories about them exploding.
Yes, snake. Yes, the impossibly small 8210 I couldn't afford but a workmate would taunt me with.
Yes, the ringtone maker on the Nokia 3xxx series I'd compose on (EVH eruption, just the tapping triplets).
Ahh the early noughties!Thanks for what Steven Wright described as reminiscing with people I don't know.
Snake is back in the Nokia 8210 4G. It has nothing else going for it.
also I hate to be the voice of reason anywhere, but apparently it's only batteries that smoke which cause hassles, which is obviously why you can't light up or vape on a plane anymore - https://avsax.com/news/what-to-do-if-a-lithium-battery-catch…
Variants of the Airbus A350 and other aircraft have Li-Ion batteries as the main batteries for the aircraft itself instead of Ni-Cd.
There are precautions, the smoke is vented outside the aircraft in the event something goes wrong and they are in shielded containers.
As to the risks, some numbers are available here to draw your own conclusions from.
They must have a procedure for it. Every passenger has at least one battery device on them, many will have multiple.
looking at a youtube video of a flight that had this problem, the procedure was emergency landing at nearest airport and passengers eat the smoke
Cases of this are increasing
2014
October: A power bank caught fire on a Qantas flight from Sydney to New York, prompting an emergency landing.
.
2015
March: A portable charger began smoking on a China Southern Airlines flight, leading to a swift response from the cabin crew.
.
2016
January: An e-cigarette battery ignited in a passenger's carry-on bag on a Delta flight, causing minor injuries.
August: A Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone caught fire on a Southwest Airlines flight, leading to a global recall of the device.
.
2017
February: A power bank emitted smoke on an Emirates flight from Dubai to Paris, resulting in an emergency landing.
June: A lithium battery-powered device caused a fire in the overhead bin of a JetBlue flight, which was quickly extinguished by the crew.
.
2018
February: A passenger's power bank exploded on a China Southern Airlines flight, leading to an evacuation upon landing.
November: A laptop battery fire was contained on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from San Francisco to Honolulu.
.
2019
March: An overheating power bank caused smoke in the cabin of a Qantas flight, forcing an emergency landing.
December: A power bank caught fire on a Lufthansa flight, prompting the crew to use a fire containment bag.
.
2020
July: A battery pack overheated on an American Airlines flight, leading to a precautionary landing.
November: A passenger's portable charger ignited on a United Airlines flight, which was handled by the flight attendants.
.
2021
April: An e-cigarette battery exploded in a passenger's pocket on a Ryanair flight, causing minor burns.
September: A power bank caught fire in the overhead bin of a Turkish Airlines flight, necessitating an emergency landing.
2022
May: A power bank emitted smoke on a JetBlue flight, which was contained by the crew using a fire containment bag.
October: An overheating laptop battery forced an emergency landing of a British Airways flight.
.
2023
March: A portable battery charger began emitting smoke on a Breeze Airways flight, injuring one passenger​
.
July: An electronic device burst into flames on an American Airlines flight, prompting an emergency evacuation​
.
2024
February: Multiple incidents of power banks overheating were reported, contributing to an increase in flight diversions and emergency landings​
​.
June: A power bank caused a fire in the overhead bin on a Delta flight, requiring immediate action from the crew.Now add the stats on the number of flights per year over those rare events.
Then the number of other risk incidents in the same year.
I think you'll find ranting Karens and pissed naked nutjobs are rising too.
Then there's the random illegal and dangerous shit ppl take on planes all the time, that we never hear about. How do I know?
Because 'humans'.agreed, because humans lol
yes your chance of dying in a plane crash might be less than 1 in 100,000 but people's fear of that is so high that we demand huge precautions be taken against it
while accepting a much higher probability - maybe 1 to 1 of being involved in a car accident - meh !
Cases of this are increasing
I'm not sure if you know what increasing means
I've always wondered that when you take a packet of chips on an airplane, the altitude increase makes it expand like a balloon. This got me thinking: could similar pressure changes affect airtight power banks and create aviation safety issues?
No, the chips packet expands because it’s filled with gas, and as the pressure decreases, the gas inside expands. This doesn’t apply to solids or liquids, so power banks aren't affected by pressure changes in the same way.
thanks someone already covered that.. i thought maybe lithium batteries would have air inside of them incases where they start to show signs of swelling
If the batteries are already swelling, then yeah they do have gas inside them, and the pressure drop could make the situation worse.
A swollen battery is already unsafe though, regardless of whether it’s on a flight or not.
when you go through security they dont check for that and some people dont have common sense to stop using a device thats swollen, even tho we know its not right to continue using, others will just wing it
I dont know the answer to this. Leave me alone please.
Pilot here.
All cabin crew are trained and practice yearly at dealing with this exact scenario.
The Usual answer is to divert to the nearest airport from a pilot POV.
Make sure you fly Boeing, where their rapid unscheduled disassemblable door plug will come in handy.
Read this as power banks exploding at midnight. Was so confused.
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you will guarantee all passengers will do that? do they check for swollen batteries at check-in? ofcourse not