Southwest Airlines Issues Urgent Warning Over Using Portable Power Banks – Here’s Why

Southwest Airlines has issued an urgent warning to passengers wanting to charge their mobile phones and other personal devices with a portable power bank after a spate of hair-raising mid-flight fires caused by portable chargers exploding into flames mid-flight.

When passengers go to check-in for their flight on the Southwest Airlines mobile app, a new pop-up warning appears with special instructions for anyone bringing a portable charger on their upcoming flight.

I had no idea this was an issue.
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The warning implores: “Keep power banks in plain sight” before detailing more specific instructions:

• “If you use a power bank during your flight, keep it out of your bag and in plain sight.”
• “Do not charge devices in the overhead bin.”

Why are power banks so dangerous?

Airlines are increasingly concerned about the risk posed by portable power banks because the bulky lithium-ion batteries used in these devices are prone to overheating, which can cause a so-called ‘thermal runaway.’

The term ‘thermal runaway’ comes from the fact that Lithium-ion batteries are made of lots of fuel cells. When one cell overheats, this can quickly spread to the next cell and so on until the power bank explodes into flames.

A thermal runaway can cause lots of heat, sparks, fire, and smoke and can be very difficult to extinguish, which poses obvious dangers in a confined airplane cabin at 38,000 feet.

Southwest has had its fair share of inflight emergencies involving power bank fires, including one incident in March when a portable charger exploded into flames as a Southwest Boeing 737 was taxiing to the gate at Reno/Tahoe International Airport.

Passengers had to evacuate the airplane via emergency slides as smoke poured out of the faulty device. Thankfully, no one was injured during that incident.

The majority of lithium-ion battery fires are caused by cell phones, but the threat posed by the larger batteries in portable power banks has airlines on edge.

Power bank fires are a global concern

It’s not just Southwest Airlines, which is warning passengers about the dangers of using a portable power bank. A growing list of airlines, mainly in Asia, have changed their rules in recent months to combat the threat of a mid-flight fire.

Major international carriers like Singapore Airlines no longer allow passengers to charge power banks using the in-seat power supply, and passengers must keep the chargers in an easily accessible location so that a problem with the device can be promptly spotted and dealt with.

Some airlines have specifically ordered passengers not to keep power banks in the overhead lockers where a problem might not be noticed until it is too late. This rule was created after an incident aboard an Air Busan airplane in South Korea in January.

In that accident, a power bank suffered a thermal runaway as the plane was preparing for departure, but no one knew there was a problem because the charger was hidden away in an overhead locker.

By the time smoke started to pour out of the bins, it was too late to contain the fire, and passengers had to be evacuated via emergency slides. The fire consumed the Airbus A321, and the aircraft was left completely gutted.

You may have already heard warnings about lithium-ion batteries during the safety demonstration, although airlines rarely explicitly state the reason. Most commonly, flight attendants will caution passengers not to move their seats if they misplace their cell phones during a flight.

The reason for this is that the mechanical mechanism to recline the seat could badly damage a cell phone and cause a thermal runaway within the phone’s lithium-ion battery.

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