A passenger on a recent United Airlines flight from Chicago O’Hare to Denver says he was left baffled about the reaction of a flight attendant when he told her his portable power bank had been damaged and was now ‘bulging.’
A swollen or bulging power bank indicates that the lithium battery is unstable and dangerous and could burst into flames with little warning. By telling the flight attendant, the passenger thought he was doing the right thing, but his concerns were allegedly dismissed by the crew.
Flight attendant tells passenger to hold onto the battery
Following the incident, the passenger took to the social media site Reddit to ask fellow travelers what the normal procedure is if a portable power bank is damaged on a flight.
The passenger explained:
“I was on my way from O’Hare to Denver last week, and the plane experienced moderate turbulence. My portable battery pack that was on my tray table, flew off the table and hit one of the metal armrests of the person sitting next to me. I noticed that the plastic enclosure cracked and noticed that the battery was bulging very slightly. I pressed the call button, and the FA came on the intercom to tell me to turn off the call button unless it’s an emergency.”
“I didn’t turn off the call button. After 5 minutes, turbulence stopped, and the battery continued to separate from the plastic enclosure. FA [flight attendant] finally showed up, maybe 5-10 minutes after the seatbelt sign turned off. I told the FA and showed her the battery. She told me to hold on to it because we are landing in less than an hr. I reiterated that it’s bulging while showing the battery to her. I was told that I will be fine, and the FA turned off the call button and then went to the back.”
“It bulged completely out of the enclosure, and I called the call button again. Same FA showed up and shrugged it off. ‘Sir, as I said. We are landing very soon. Please just hold on to it, and you can dispose of it once we land.'”
FA unprofessional behavior over bulging portable battery during flight.
byu/IcyCharge9066 inunitedairlines
What the passenger describes is a potentially serious situation in which the lithium battery inside the power bank is so badly damaged that it could overheat and catch fire with very little warning.
How should the flight attendant have reacted?
If the passenger’s description of what occurred is correct, then aviation safety insiders would expect the flight attendant to have reacted in a very different way than has been described.
Rather than dismissing the passenger’s concerns, you would usually expect a flight attendant to take immediate steps to ensure the power bank cannot overheat and catch fire.
There are two ways that airlines train crew members to do this:
- The low-tech option, which is advocated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is to submerge the lithium battery completely in water, and then monitor the device for the remainder of the flight, making sure that it doesn’t start steaming.
- Many airlines also now have fireproof bags to contain damaged electronic devices. These bags usually contain a special gel that will rapidly cool and suffocate the device.
IATA issues new power bank guidelines
The aviation industry has witnessed an alarming increase in lithium batteries overheating and catching fire onboard planes, and this has resulted in the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) carrying out a thorough review of the existing rules, especially around power banks.
The reason that airlines are so concerned about power banks is that the lithium batteries are much larger than those in other electronic devices, like mobile phones, so the danger posed by one catching fire is increased.
IATA represents the vast majority of global airlines and produces a huge number of guidelines, recommendations, and rules that carriers around the world are expected to follow.
The review into passengers carrying power banks was recently concluded, and this recommended several important changes:
- Passengers will no longer be able to store power banks in overhead lockers. They must keep them under the seat in front, a seatback pocket, or on their person.
- Using power banks to charge other devices or charging them via the in-seat power supply will be strictly prohibited.
- Passengers will be restricted to carrying a maximum of two power banks onboard with them.
These new guidelines are in addition to existing rules that ban power banks from being stored in checked luggage.
Expect more airlines to adopt strict rules in the coming months
Even before IATA completed its review, a growing list of airlines had already adopted their own stricter rules around the use of power banks. Most of these rules mimic the IATA guidelines, although there are some differences:
- For example, Emirates says passengers are only permitted to have one power bank on board.
- Some airlines, like Southwest, still permit passengers to use power banks onboard but urge customers to monitor them at all times for signs of overheating.
Earlier this month, the Lufthansa Group adopted IATA’s guidelines as written, following in the footsteps of Australian flag carrier Qantas.
In the coming months, also expect more and more global carriers to adopt the IATA guidelines.
