The country's largest flight-attendant union is asking the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ban e-cigarettes and vaping devices from planes altogether, due to the fire hazard posed by their lithium-ion batteries. Despite the fact that most of passengers' other personal gadgets are also powered lithium-ion batteries, vaping devices often run on particularly cheap batteries that are more likely to fail and set something aflame.
According to CBS News, spare lithium-ion batteries sparked a fire aboard a Delta flight while the plane was still parked at its gate in February 2019. E-cigarette batteries also blamed for a fire started in a TSA line in Charleston, West Virginia, and a vape-pen battery was said to have caused someone's bag to start smoking at a security line in Savannah, Georgia.
In fact, the FAA has received reports of at least 265 such incendiary incidents involving batteries since 1991, with data pointing to 48 e-cigarette-related instances of smoke or fire incidents that occurred at airports or aboard planes. That total exceeds any of accidents involving other passenger tech, such as laptops and tablets, cell phones, battery chargers or spare batteries.
Because of the increased fire hazard posed by lithium-cell batteries, FAA regulations already require that e-cigarettes, vape pens and spare batteries must be transported in carry-on bags only. An FAA test video demonstrated why lithium-ion batteries have been banned in checked luggage: if a battery fails and enters what's referred to as a "thermal runaway", it can burn so hot that it can't be extinguished by the plane's fire suppression system.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told CBS News that flight attendants have become firefighters aboard planes and are trained to handle battery fires, which can involve stuffing smoldering or flaming batteries or devices into in fire-resistant bags, which are now carried aboard many aircraft. "A lithium-ion battery fire on a plane can be catastrophic," said Nelson, and she argues that the FAA needs to do more to reduce the risk.
The FAA said in a statement, sent to CBS on the subject, that it already has "clear regulations" on the safe transport of lithium-ion batteries. The authority added that "because of the wide variety of battery issues that can occur, it is important that airlines have the flexibility to assess and address the risks involved in each individual situation."
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