Flaming USB battery halts flight from Taiwan to Singapore
- Reference: 1673506686
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/01/12/taiwan_singapore_powerbank_fire/
- Source link:
The fire was significant enough to frighten passengers and fill the cabin with smoke.
Fuh bahaya betul!
Dua penumpang cedera apabila sebuah alat pengecas kuasa atau 'power bank' terbakar dalam satu penerbangan Scoot ke Singapura tidak lama selepas ia berlepas pada Selasa (10 Jan). [1]pic.twitter.com/lDeljhCWMI — Malaysian Update🇲🇾 (@Msia_Update) [2]January 11, 2023
Taiwanese politician Wang Hao-yu was aboard flight TR993, by Scoot Airlines. He gave an account in Chinese of the incident on his [3]Facebook page :
When the flight took off and taxied, a fire suddenly broke out in the cabin, and the cabin was immediately filled with smoke. The crew immediately began fire extinguishing operations after discovering it. Later, investigation found that the source of the fire was the mobile power supply in the aircraft, and the fire and smoke caused minor injuries to the two passengers, and the rest of the passengers were fine.
Wang later posted a photo of the burned-out battery.
After the plane underwent a safety check, the 187 passengers were individually given the option of disembarking or carrying on to Singapore. However, the Taiwan Transportation Security Board stepped in and TR993 did not fly that day.
[4]Lufthansa bans Apple AirTags on checked bags
[5]Techies try to bypass damaged UPS, send 380V into air traffic system
[6]Smoking smartphone sparks emergency evacuation of Alaska Airlines jet, two taken to hospital
[7]FAA grounds all US departures after NOTAM goes down
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) issued [8]instructions [PDF] advising against carrying portable electric devices to prevent this exact scenario.
The United States' FAA issued a [9]warning against spare lithium batteries in checked luggage way back in 2015.
[10]
Airlines now allow two power banks totaling under 100Wh on flights, but only in carry-on luggage.
[11]
Prior to those policies, batteries combusted in aircraft baggage, with consequences such as burning [12]holes in planes.
Phablets and everyday smartphones have also been known to cause damage. In 2016, Samsung [13]recalled Samsung Galaxy Note 7s after they were discovered to have a "battery cell issue." In August 2021, passengers escaped an Alaska Airlines aircraft via emergency slides after a smartphone [14]caught fire and filled the cabin with smoke. That same year, an Apple iPhone XR also [15]blazed aboard a British Airways flight after it got trapped in a passenger's seat.
[16]
In October 2022, Lufthansa [17]extended its ban to include Apple AirTags. The airline claimed the move was to increase safety, but the policy raised eyebrows as the model CR2032 batteries used in AirTags are allowed in checked luggage in most scenarios – including under US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) rules. The ban was reversed within a week of being issued. ®
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[1] https://t.co/lDeljhCWMI
[2] https://twitter.com/Msia_Update/status/1613082865696378886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[3] https://www.facebook.com/WangHauYu/posts/pfbid02nk84fJ4ppD6cdJuFqcaZZAE4i4rfj2RWcQFjUum5N4bqtGQRfP26E8bqJSqNe4SNl
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/10/lufthansa_airtag_ban/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/03/philippines_air_traffic_outage/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/24/alaska_smartphone_fire/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/11/faa_grounds_all_us_departures/
[8] https://www.icao.int/safety/DangerousGoods/AddendumCorrigendum%20to%20the%20Technical%20Instructions/Doc%209284-2017-2018.AddendumNo2.en.pdf
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2015/10/14/faa_lithium_battery_warning/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y7-oTleFiq6RTwSi2P@6NwAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y7-oTleFiq6RTwSi2P@6NwAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2014/09/10/drone_owners_batteries_burn_in_boeings_belly/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/02/recall_samsungs_exploding_galaxy_note_7_devices/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/24/alaska_smartphone_fire/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/20/iphone_xr_inflight_fire_british_airways/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y7-oTleFiq6RTwSi2P@6NwAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/10/lufthansa_airtag_ban/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Luftwaffe or Lufthanse?
Possibly because they’re more able to absorb losses on the common business routes that were being run on shoestring margins and drove the local operators out.
RIP the BMI Munich to Southampton route.
On the other hand, Lufthansa have consistently been improving on the long haul side whereas others like SIA have fallen far.
Re: Luftwaffe or Lufthanse?
If you mean Alitalia - it's joined the choir invisible. I, for one, welcome our new ITA Airways overlords.
Fireproof safe?
Is it time we have to check anything with a lithium battery in separately, and it get stored in a secure fireproof safe or similar? Then collect it separately at the other end?
Logistical nightmare, but would be considerably safer.
Re: Fireproof safe?
That would have to be a very big, very heavy safe given the current trend of having non-removable batteries in laptops..
Plus any fire would be made worse if all the batteries on the plane were kept in the same place. It would have to be a hell of a safe to store 200 odd Dell/HP/MacBooks/etc in such a way that they are not damaged during turbulence, and that the safe could er, safely withstand all 200 of them going up in flames, releasing a lot of toxic gas that has to be handled..
For those passengers that are "fine", they might not be so happy about having inhaled small quantities of HF gas, which is one of the products of a lithium battery fire. This gas turns into hydroflouric acid on contact with water, such as mucous membranes etc. Not a nice substance. If it were a larger amount from everyone's devices combined, the fumes would probably be fatal in an aircraft cabin, unless the fire safe also had some kind of air filtration system.
The fuel cost of just having the safes on board would probably run into thousands of gallons per plane per year..
Re: Fireproof safe?
I think it's just easier not to fly.
Re: Fireproof safe?
I think that was roughly the [1]solution for the batteries in the Boeing 787 itself. (And the toxic gas was to be vented to the outside?)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Boeing_787_Dreamliner_grounding#Solution
Luftwaffe or Lufthanse?
Always wondered how these doddering European carriers like BA , AF , KLM, AirItalia and others survive when it is obvious they don't care about the flying sardines in a can?