British aviation regulators have issued an urgent warning after official statistics revealed that the number of incidents involving power banks and other lithium battery-powered devices overheating and catching fire on airplanes has nearly doubled in just one year.
Lithium battery fires are now one of the biggest concerns facing airlines, with more and more carriers introducing tough new rules in a bid to reduce the risk of a catastrophic fire engulfing an airliner at 35,000 feet.
Despite these new rules, however, the British Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has found that over a third of passengers still aren’t aware that packing devices with lithium batteries, like power banks, mobile phones, and vapes, in their checked luggage has been strictly prohibited for many years.
The CAA estimates that passengers bring up to 2,000 personal devices powered by a lithium battery on board an average Airbus A380 superjumbo, and hundreds of those devices could be incorrectly packed in checked luggage.
The danger of doing this is very real: Lithium batteries are vulnerable to overheating to the point that they catch fire, often with no warning. When the battery overheats, it causes a chain reaction known as ‘thermal runaway’ in which the fire spreads from one fuel cell in the battery to the next in quick succession.
This rapid chain reaction can cause a ferocious fire that is very difficult to put out. The danger is bad enough in the cabin where flight attendants have access to specalist fire fighting equipment, but the risk is even higher in the baggage hold as fire containment measures are much more limited.
Given the dramatic increase in the number of power banks and other lithium batteries overheating – a 98% increase between 2024 and 2025, the CAA is now increasingly worried that a serious incident could occur if a battery is left in checked luggage.
According to the CAA, 36% of passengers remain unaware that they aren’t allowed to pack lithium batteries in their checked luggage. Given that the average passenger brings four lithium battery-powered devices with them on a flight, the CAA believes that hundreds of lithium batteries are being incorrectly stored in the baggage hold on any given flight.
“Whilst pilots and cabin crew are trained to deal with any situation the best outcome is always prevention, which starts when passengers pack their bags,” commented Tim Alderslade, Chief Executive of Airlines UK, which is supporting a new campaign by the CAA.
“Electronic devices like tablets, power banks, and vapes belong in your hand luggage, not the hold. We’d urge every passenger heading away this summer to take a moment to check before they zip up their bag,” Alderslade added.
The CAA added: “Getting it wrong could lead to your bags being removed from the flight, causing significant delays or even worse, result in a fire that may be impossible to contain.”
In addition to the reminder not to pack lithium batteries in checked luggage, airlines have also introduced new rules to prevent fire incidents on board:
- Never charge a power bank using the in-seat power supply.
- Keep power banks out of overhead bins so that they can be easily monitored throughout the flight.
- Limit the number of power banks to two per passenger.
