Mid-flight battery fires on the increase
The number of mid-flight fires caused by overheating lithium-ion batteries is on the rise.
A Federal Aviation Administration report says there have been 17 instances of overheating or exploding batteries in the first five months of 2017.
They involved batteries in cell phones, laptops, e-cigarette devices, cameras, power packs and headphones.
They impacted flights with Southwest Airlines, Frontier, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, while two fires were reported on FedEx cargo planes.
Three flights ended up being diverted.
There were 31 in total throughout 2016.
With an electronics device ban in effect from 10 airports, primarily in the Middle East, and the possibility of it being expanded to 71 more airports, there are fears the problem will only get worse with baggage holds filled with unattended electronic devices that all use lithium-ion batteries.
This was acknowledged by US transportation secretary Elaine Chao at a Senate hearing last week.
"This is a difficult issue that the administration is grappling with especially from a security point of view," Chao said.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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