In recent weeks, you may have heard of multiple airlines changing their policies around passengers bringing portable power banks onboard with them because of fears that the devices could overheat and cause a serious fire that is extremely difficult to put out.
It’s not, however, just power banks that airlines are concerned about, but any device with a sizeable lithium-ion battery could pose a serious safety risk, despite the fact that we carry around multiple of these devices every day with little issues.
That risk also extends to mobile phones, which, just like power banks can overheat and can fire with little warning… especially if they get damaged. A particular concern with mobile phones as they often get lost in airline seats and then crushed in the mechanism.
Air France is taking the risk so seriously that on Friday a Boeing 777-300 with 375 passengers onboard diverted because someone misplaced their mobile phone and, despite the best efforts of the passengers and cabin crew, it couldn’t be located.
The risk is bad enough if a phone or other lithium battery-powered device gets lost within a seat, but at least cabin crew can monitor the seat and have fire fighting tools on standby just in case the battery is damaged and suffers a so-called ‘thermal runaway.’
But when the device has gone missing, how would anyone know that the device was overheating until it was too late?
Taking no chances, the pilots of Air France flight AF-750 from Paris Orly to Pointe-à-Pitre, in the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe, decided to make quick diversion back to the French capital so that engineers could go on the hunt for the misplaced phone.
The 17-year-old aircraft departed Paris at around midday on March 21 and immediately headed westwards for its transatlantic crossing, but just as it passed the coast of Portugal, the plane entered a short holding pattern – presumably as cabin crew made one last attempt to locate the errant device.
When the search proved fruitless, the pilots decided the only option was to head back towards Paris, landing exactly where they started just over two hours after departure.
With any luck, Air France hopes to locate the device, retrieve it from its hiding place and have the plane on its way at some point on Friday.
On Thursday, cabin crew on a Hong Kong Airlines flight from the Chinese city of Hangzhou were filmed desperately pouring various liquids, including fruit juice, into an overhead locker of the Airbus A320 after a fire broke out in a passenger’s rucksack.
The cause of the blaze is believed to be a power bank that overheated, prompting an emergency diversion. Thankfully, the crew were able to successfully extinguish the fire, although not before the flames singed the ceiling of the single-aisle aircraft.
Some of the major international airlines that have clamped down on power banks include Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. From April 1, both carriers will prohibit passengers from charging their power banks via onboard outlets or using the banks to charge other devices.
Other airlines have also started to prohibit passengers from placing power banks into overhead lockers so that they can be more easily monitored should they start to overheat.
