SEOUL – South Korea tightened rules on carrying lithium batteries on planes from March 1, highlighting a growing risk to flights worldwide from the batteries used in cellphones and e-cigarettes which can malfunction to produce smoke, fire or extreme heat.
In 2024, three incidents a fortnight of overheating lithium batteries on planes were recorded globally by the US Federal Aviation Administration, compared to just under one a week in 2018.
Aviation has long recognised the increasingly used batteries as a safety concern, and rules are periodically tightened in response to accidents.
From March 1, passengers on South Korean airlines should keep power banks and e-cigarettes on their person and not in overhead cabin bins. Devices should not be charged on board, and battery quantity and strength limits will be enforced.
South Korean authorities said the measures were in response to public anxiety about fires after an Air Busan plane was consumed in flames in January while waiting to take off.
Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire, but a preliminary investigation statement on Feb 27 said it started in a cabin overhead locker after boarding.
All 170 passengers and six crew were evacuated before the aircraft was destroyed. The fire was detected around 20 minutes after the delayed flight had originally been scheduled to depart.
“Existing cabin crew firefighting procedures have been demonstrated to be effective for all (lithium battery) incidents which have occurred in-flight. However if such an incident occurs while on the ground, the safest option is to evacuate the aircraft,” a spokesperson for the International Air Transport Association said.
Cabin crew are trained to put out flames with extinguishers, cool the battery with liquid, and isolate the device in fire containment pouches or boxes.
Hundreds on each plane
Lithium metal and lithium-ion batteries are types of non-rechargeable and rechargeable batteries found in devices such as laptops, mobile phones, tablets, watches, power banks and electronic cigarettes.
Passengers on a full flight could be carrying hundreds between them.
Manufacturing faults or damage, such as a phone being crushed in the gap between plane seats or exposed to extreme temperatures, can cause them to short circuit and rapidly overheat.
Heat, smoke and fire can result, and they can even explode in a “high-energy expulsion of extremely hot gel and parts of the device acting as shrapnel”, the Flight Safety Foundation says.
In 2016, UN aviation agency ICAO banned passenger planes from carrying lithium batteries as cargo. This followed fatal crashes of a UPS freighter in Dubai in 2010, and an Asiana Airlines cargo plane in South Korea in 2011, after intense fires broke out in holds carrying such batteries.
Current aviation standards say power banks and personal electronic devices should travel in the cabin, not in checked luggage, so any malfunction can be tackled.
A December 2024 research report by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) found that “non-compliant lithium batteries persistently travel in hold baggage”, and that hold baggage screening need to be improved.
The industry is exploring new detection methods, including the use of scent detection dogs. REUTERS
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