Passengers on Southwest Airways flights will quickly be required to maintain their transportable chargers in plain sight whereas utilizing them due to issues concerning the rising variety of lithium-ion battery fires in a brand new coverage that different airways could undertake.
Southwest introduced the brand new coverage that may go into impact Could 28 and stated passengers could have already seen notifications concerning the rule when utilizing the airline’s app. Whereas Southwest is the primary U.S. airline to limit the usage of transportable chargers like this, a number of Asian airways have taken motion earlier this yr after a devastating fireplace aboard an Air Busan aircraft ready to take off from an airport in South Korea in January.
There’s rising concern about lithium-ion battery fires on planes as a result of the variety of incidents continues to develop yearly, and gadgets powered by these batteries are ubiquitous. There have already been 19 incidents involving these batteries this yr, following final yr’s document excessive of 89, in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration statistics.
The incidents have greater than doubled for the reason that pandemic-era low of 39 in 2020, and have climbed yearly.
AP AUDIO: Southwest Airways would require chargers be saved out whereas in use due to battery fireplace issues
In case you are flying Southwest, the AP’s Lisa Dwyer stories there’s a brand new rule on chargers it’s best to learn about.
Some analysis means that transportable chargers may be the second-leading reason behind battery fires on planes, solely behind digital cigarettes.
In comparison with the roughly 180,000 flights U.S. airways function every week, the variety of incidents remains to be comparatively small and lithium batteries can overheat anyplace. Nevertheless, it is a rising concern for the airways.
“It’s positively a critical danger,” stated David Wroth, who research the dangers for UL Requirements & Engagement and works with 37 airways and battery producers to reduce them. A minimum of a few airways UL is working with are reevaluating the dangers related to rechargeable batteries, so further rule adjustments could possibly be coming.
What has occurred earlier than?
Within the Korean airline fireplace in January, all 176 individuals aboard the aircraft needed to be evacuated as a result of the blaze burned by way of the aircraft’s roof. The reason for that fireplace hasn’t been formally decided, however a number of airways and Korean regulators took motion in opposition to transportable chargers afterward.
Korean airways gained’t permit the chargers to be saved in overhead bins anymore; they have to both be packed in a plastic bag or have their ports lined with insulating tape to maintain them from touching steel.
As well as, Singapore Airways and Thai Airways each prohibit the use or charging of transportable energy banks in any respect throughout flights.
Final summer time, a smoking laptop in a passenger’s bag led to the evacuation of a plane awaiting takeoff at San Francisco International Airport. In 2023, a flight from Dallas to Orlando, Florida, made an emergency landing in Jacksonville, Florida, after a battery caught fire in an overhead bin.
Why make this change?
Southwest said that requiring these chargers to be kept out in the open when they are being used will help because “in the rare event a lithium battery overheats or catches fire, quick access is critical and keeping power banks in plain sight allow for faster intervention and helps protect everyone onboard.”
Experts have long recommended keeping rechargeable devices in reach during flights so they can be monitored for any signs of problems like becoming too hot to touch or starting to bulge or smoke. But the airlines have to rely on educating consumers and encouraging them to take precautions.
“Ultimately, it comes down to a lot of personal responsibility that we as passengers have to take,” Wroth said.
Southwest will allow the chargers to be stored inside carry-on bags when they aren’t in use. But a spokeswoman said the airline is just alerting customers about the policy before their flight and asking for their compliance. Wroth said that approach is probably best.
“We have enough problems with unruly passengers already. And having cabin crew confront somebody over bringing something on board is not likely to be a good situation as well,” Wroth said.
What do the existing rules say?
The Transportation Security Administration has long prohibited e-cigarettes and chargers and power banks with lithium-ion batteries in checked bags, but allows them in carry-on bags. The rule exists exactly as a result of fires within the cargo maintain may be more durable to detect and extinguish.
The FAA recommends passengers preserve cell telephones and different gadgets close by on planes to allow them to entry them shortly. The company stated flight crews are skilled to acknowledge and reply to lithium battery fires. Passengers ought to notify the flight crew instantly if their lithium battery or gadget is overheating, increasing, smoking or burning.
How frequent is that this drawback?
The most recent analysis from UL Requirements & Engagement stated that information from 2024 means that transportable chargers have been in charge in 19% of the incidents, although that was solely barely forward of the variety of cellular phone incidents. E-cigarettes accounted for 28% of the issues.
Practically one-third of all passengers carried transportable chargers on flights final yr.
A couple of-quarter of passengers surveyed last year stated they put vaping cigarettes and transportable chargers in checked luggage. That’s in opposition to federal guidelines, however Wroth stated it may be as a lot a difficulty of them not understanding the hazards as a lot as it’s passengers making an attempt to cover the gadgets.
UL Requirements & Engagement, a part of a safety-science firm as soon as often called Underwriters Laboratories, stated it primarily based its findings on information from 37 passenger and cargo airways, together with 9 of the ten main U.S. passenger carriers. It’s simply on the point of launch this yr’s report.