Topline
The nation’s aviation regulator is urging airlines to ramp up messaging about the dangers of lithium battery fires—but did not mandate any policy changes.
The FAA issued a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) on Tuesday encouraging airlines to issue clearer messaging for passengers on the potential fire risks associated with lithium battery-powered devicess.
“Lithium batteries (including power banks and portable chargers) can act as ignition sources and potentially start onboard fires,” the alert says, noting batteries stored in passenger overhead bins may be difficult to access.
The agency requires portable chargers be packed in carry-on baggage but allows lithium battery-powered devices such as laptops and tablets in checked luggage, as long as they are powered off.
The SAFO advises airlines to “review passenger safety messaging” and “consider” the alert when “developing or reviewing their programs, policies, and procedures” but falls short of mandating a change in policy on portable chargers.
In May, Southwest Airlines became the first U.S. airline to preemptively require passengers to charge their devices in plain sight, not inside a carry-on bag, but no other major U.S. carrier has followed suit.
The FAA’s lithium-battery-incident tracker reports 50 lithium-fire incidents on planes this year through Sept. 2—averaging about 1.4 per week.
Spare lithium-ion batteries, including power banks and charging cases, are never allowed in checked bags and “must be carried in carry-on baggage only,” according to the FAA’s website. But the agency’s rules are fuzzier when it comes to many battery-powered devices passengers travel with. The FAA’s PackSafe webpage says passengers “should” pack lithium battery-powered personal electronic devices in carry-on bags, but also states that these devices can be packed in checked luggage as long as they are “completely powered off and protected to prevent unintentional activation or damage,” adding “most consumer personal electronic devices containing batteries are allowed in carry-on and checked baggage.”
The main risk is that these batteries can overheat and go into thermal runaway, a chain reaction that occurs when a lithium-ion cell enters an uncontrollable, self-heating state—resulting in extremely high temperature, smoke and, ultimately, a fire that is notoriously difficult to put out. The average passenger brings four devices on a flight—including smartphones (81%), laptops (40%), wireless headphones (38%) and tablets (35%), according to a 2024 survey of over 12,000 adults by UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE), a nonprofit organization that develops and advocates for safety standards in various sectors, including the airline industry. According to FAA data, 39% of lithium-battery incidents on aircraft reported since 2006 involved portable chargers. The next-biggest culprit was vape pens, responsible for 21% of incidents.
In August, the cabin of a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines plane filled with smoke after a portable phone charger caught fire midflight between São Paulo, Brazil, and Amsterdam. The previous month, a personal device caused a fire on a Delta flight, leading to an emergency landing in Fort Myers, Florida. Also in July, a fire broke out in the overhead bin of a Virgin Australia flight and filled the cabin with smoke. In May, a Southwest flight had to divert to the nearest airport when a passenger’s portable charger began smoking midflight. In April, a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu to Tokyo declared an emergency when a passenger’s cell phone became lodged in a seat and began emitting an “electrical smell.” In February, a fire destroyed a South Korean budget carrier Air Busan plane, which subsequently prohibited carry-on luggage containing portable chargers from being stored in overhead bins.
For years, aviation industry personnel have been vocal about their concern regarding lithium batteries on planes. In particular, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), the largest such union, representing nearly 55,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, has been advocating for more attention regarding the risks, Taylor Garland, spokesperson for the AFA, told Forbes. “There's too little public awareness of the threat,” she said in an email, adding that fireproofing systems in the baggage hold “are not designed to stop a lithium battery fire” so it's important that lithium battery-powered devices “are in the cabin within arm's reach of their owner.” Twenty-two anonymous safety reports concerning lithium batteries were filed by baggage handlers, flight attendants and pilots between January and May 2025, according to a review by Forbes last month of NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), a program that lets aviation workers file confidential reports without fear of punishment.
Following a spate of high-profile lithium-battery incidents this year, nearly a dozen airlines—mainly based in Asia—have made policy changes this year concerning lithium battery-powered portable chargers on planes. On Tuesday, Vietnam Airlines banned using portable chargers on planes. But in the United States, only Southwest has changed its policy regarding portable chargers. “This is what proactive safety looks like,” Dave Hunt, vice president of safety and security at Southwest Airlines, told Forbes. “We're not waiting for a regulator or an outside entity to tell us what to do. We felt there was enough evidence for us to make what are fairly modest changes.”
Airline Bans Portable Chargers From Overhead Bins After Fire Destroyed Plane (Forbes)