FAA Warns Airlines About Lithium Battery Dangers After 50 Incidents This Year
- Reference: 0179139518
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/10/1915206/faa-warns-airlines-about-lithium-battery-dangers-after-50-incidents-this-year
- Source link:
The FAA recommended airlines implement risk mitigation strategies including clear passenger messaging and updated firefighting procedures and training.
[1] https://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/safo/all_safos/SAFO25002.pdf
\o/ (Score:1)
Market primed for alternate-but-more-expensive battery tech to enter from stage right.
Better chemistries (Score:2)
While not quite as energy dense, [1]LiFePO4 [wikipedia.org] (aka LFP) batteries are increasingly common, and they don't pose the same thermal runaway risk that lithium ion batteries have. It's worth looking for this type of battery in devices you're buying from now on.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery#Safety
Should be a CPSC order (Score:4, Interesting)
What we really need is a CPSC order requiring all products containing lithium ion batteries sold in the U.S. to comply with certain safety standards and go through a rigorous certification process. While major products from major companies occasionally have these issues, the vast majority are with s**t products, with vape pens being the #1 offender by percentage of devices, followed by external batteries.
To put it in context, 39% of fires on planes were caused by external batteries (source is a Gemini summary, but that's in line with my recollection, so I'll assume that it is roughly correct), 21% by e-cigarettes, and 15% by cell phones.
~100% of passengers carry a cell phone, so we don't need to adjust that number.
Probably a quarter of passengers carry an external charger brick or battery, and many carry more than one, so I'd expect the number of those devices to be at least half the passenger count, and possibly higher. So proportionally, that's probably equivalent to 78% or so when adjusted to be at the same scale as the cell phone number, i.e. more than 5x as likely to catch fire on a per-device basis.
About 6.5% of U.S. adults use e-cigarettes, and not all of those would be on the plane. That's equivalent to 323% when adjusted to be on the same scale as the cell phone number, i.e. more than 21x as likely to catch fire. The overwhelming majority of these involve batteries without covers on the terminals, which short out in people's luggage. This could easily be solved through better design, and IMO, the CPSC should have gotten involved a long time ago, mandating that all batteries sold in the U.S. come with a cover and/or have widely spaced and recessed terminals designed to be resistant to shorting. (Example: Sony camera batteries.)
Unsurprisingly, only one fires involved spare lithium ion camera batteries, which would be a fraction of a percent, despite about a third of people owning standalone digital cameras, and the average photographer carrying probably two to four of those batteries. In other words, scaled to the same scale, cell phones (because they are actively using the batteries) are about 14x more likely to catch fire than inactive spare batteries from reputable manufacturers. It also probably helps that most camera manufacturers provide covers for their spare batteries, and most photographers keep them on the batteries when not in use. And still camera batteries typically have short circuit protection.
Obsolete in a few years (Score:2)
Lithium Ion is just a phase we are going through in battery technology, that should be abandoned in a few years, exactly because of the propensity to become incendiary devices with damaged. There are already much safer alternatives available. I am suprised the TSA still allows people to carry Lithium Ion batteries onto airplanes. Can't any idiot turn them into an incendiary device by just shorting them out?
Re: (Score:2)
> Can't any idiot turn them into an incendiary device by just shorting them out?
There's a few videos on YouTube of people shorting out Li-Ion batteries. Surprisingly, they actually don't catch fire most of the time. The type of Li-Ion battery makes a difference too. LiPo cells are more likely to go up in flames than the common 18650 cells.
What about other places? (Score:3)
If there are that many thermal incidents in a year on aircraft, how often do these events happen in peoples homes, or in their pockets?
Re: (Score:2)
50 incidents is probably nothing, but on planes that's a big deal.
Re: (Score:3)
They do happen.
Some friends of mine recently lost their house to fire. the fire department is pretty sure it started with a Li battery pack that overcharged.
Remember last year we were reading how NYC wanted to restrict e-bikes because the batteries lead to apartment fires.
I am saying all Li battery devices are dangerous they are not, but there is a lot of cheap imported crap out there that has very little regulation on charging if any and usually nothing to protect from excessive current draw for any reason
Re: (Score:1)
How long have we had Lithium batteries on planes? Do we suspect that the incidence of problems is increasing in a mature technology? Probably not so what's behind this sudden push?
Re: (Score:2)
"Mature technology" can mean different things. Batteries hold a LOT of energy which can usually be released very quickly if the battery is damaged. We want batteries with more energy and less volume, so pack that energy tighter. And as time goes on, we get companies which... don't follow every single safety precaution (because that's expensive) in design and manufacture of the batteries, especially because the components of the batteries are made by many companies, then assembled by other companies, then
Re: (Score:2)
> If there are that many thermal incidents in a year on aircraft, how often do these events happen in peoples homes, or in their pockets?
I'm actually surprised that there are not more incidents of serious fires on airplanes.
They are quite a bit like submarines in that regard - contained environments where heat and gasses build up very fast. And it's not as if you can leave - submarine crews are trained to all rush towards the fire (with fire-fighting equipment).
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe it's related to relatively sudden air-pressure changes? If that's the case, then cars and homes are fine, as long as you are not Dorothy Gale nor Toto.