Because if it's buried in a bag of clothes it's more likely to overheat, smoulder, and make things a lot worse. At least if you have it nearby you can react and put it in an explosion containment pie dish.

Yeah, you could always throw it out the window :)

You are more likely to notice it expanding and smoking if you have it near you though. Even if it does catch fire without warning, being in the cabin instead of in a confined space, inside a zipped up bag, under other bags, will make it easier to prevent the fire spreading.

A lot of commercial carriers have special bags on their planes that are specifically designed to contain lithium battery fires (google AvSax for an example). My guess is this is to a) prevent it from turning into a bigger fire by setting the contents of the bag they are in on fire and b) to make it faster to get it into a containment bag (flight attendants know how to get and use the bags).

Because knowing about the fire early can save lives. Once the fire starts, the pilots have a few minutes to get the plane on the ground and the passengers off. If you subtract the first 3-4 minutes because it was burning in an overhead locker, you have much lower chances.

You can also potentially contain the fire if you know about it early. I wonder if a light weight equivalent of a bucket of sand could be invented, it way be as simple as having a portable metal case that the flight attendants scoop the p

your laptop's UEFI/SMM firmware will shut down at a critical temperature. And your battery pack will also shut off if the temperature is exceeded, if it is using a chip to track charging/cycling or at least offers some basic thermal protection. All of this occurs regardless if you're running Windows or Linux on it.

> I don't understand why anyone would buy a power bank except for unusual situations like camping expeditions, a phone's battery lasts for days. A laptop's battery lasts for 20 hours. Especially on a phone when any longish flight has charging ports at each seat.

Your definition of "power bank" is very specific to mean an industrial power station for things like outages and camping. Google "power bank" and what comes up is generally a battery ranging from phone sized units to camping stations.

Power banks can charge a phone? Well then, sounds like a charger. I can imagine there are a significant number of people using a power bank to keep topping up their failing phone battery, people are lazy and those china made banks are really cheap compared to a proper battery replacement - more fuel to make the damn phones and tablets require a user replaceable design that doesn't take more than 3 minutes to swap out.

Does anyone really fully trust Lithium-Ion batteries anymore? They were fine when they w

I see several holes in your reasoning, at least for common folks.

Battery capacity: most folks don't have a brand new phone or laptop that last the 'advertised' times from the marketing department. Some of us buy used devices and keep them for several years.

Not all airplanes, even long courier ones, provide a USB port for each seat, more less so a USB-C one.

Some folks do fly as a stage to a hiking destination, so they might need to to bring a power bank with them.

I don't travel a whole lot but when I visit f

"a phone's battery lasts for days. A laptop's battery lasts for 20 hours."

Neither are true for 98% of phones or laptops, especially if they are actively being used. Try watching a movie on a phone or laptop (a common use while on a plane) and let us know how long they last.

Well, my phone battery doesn't last for days and never has. I have a powerbank for long workdays in the field, camping, or when I just want to charge something while using it - e.g. a game controller. Or my bike's lights when I'm nowhere near an outlet. You don't have to understand this but your lack of understanding doesn't make it less real.

Power banks are handy in all kinds of situations. On public transit with no passenger accessible chargers, sitting out in a park. At a table at a restaurant or bar. for extended power outages. Everyone should have at least one power bank that's kept charged just for an emergency situation. Preferably one that has the capacity to full charge your phone at least 2-3 times. They can provide lighting in an emergency, some have lights built in or you can get a small string of LED lights that will plug into a USB

A power bank does contain battery charging circuitry.

Sounds like a Nestout power bank. I've got several of them for camping along with the lighting and solar charging accessories.

Yea I was scratching my head for a minute on that too. I'm pretty sure they mean power banks. There is no way an unplugged wall wart is going to spontaneously catch fire.

Reading what's out there is clear they are referring to the kind of portable external battery banks people use to have extra battery capacity for their devices.