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A Delta Air Lines flight made an emergency landing Monday after a passenger’s lithium battery-powered device caught fire midflight—one of more than 35 such incidents to occur on a U.S. flight so far in 2025.
A fire involving a passenger's lithium battery-powered device forced a Delta flight to make an ... More
A Delta flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was forced to make an emergency landing in Fort Myers, Florida, on Monday when a passenger’s personal device caught fire in the aircraft cabin, a Delta spokesperson confirmed to Forbes, adding “flight attendants used their training and procedures to deploy a fire containment bag to extinguish the battery.”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reported 34 lithium-battery incidents on planes in the first six months of 2025, averaging nearly six events per month—slightly down from last year, which averaged more than seven per month.
The FAA and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) ban portable chargers from checked luggage but allow them in carry-on bags.
In May, Southwest Airlines became the first U.S. airline to ban passengers from charging devices with a power bank inside a carry-on bag due to the risk of a charger’s lithium battery overheating or catching fire—going further than FAA guidance.
Following a fire that destroyed a passenger jet in February, South Korean budget carrier Air Busan prohibited carry-on luggage containing portable chargers from being stored in overhead bins.
In the United States, the FAA has reported 632 lithium battery incidents since the agency began tracking such events in 2006—with more than one third (246) involving portable battery packs. The FAA confirmed 89 lithium battery incidents on aircraft in 2024—an average of 1.7 per week. These events have become more frequent in recent years with the proliferation of personal devices powered by lithium-ion batteries, such as laptops, tablets, cell phones, vape pens and portable chargers. In 2014, the FAA reported only nine lithium battery incidents all year.
“The prevalence of lithium batteries is a potential hazard to aircraft safety,” one FAA study states, due to “the potential to undergo a process called thermal runaway,” which is an uncontrollable and rapid rise in temperature and pressure and the release of flammable gases. Lithium batteries can overheat and catch fire due to a variety of reasons, including “physical damage (e.g., the battery is penetrated or crushed or exposed to water), electrical damage (e.g., overcharging or using charging equipment not designed for the battery), exposure to extreme temperatures, and product defects,” according to the National Fire Protection Association.
In most cases, the event is handled before the device catches fire. “These things produce so much smoke and that generally will get people's attention, plus the smell of the smoke is very pungent and it's very noticeable,” John Cox, an aviation safety expert and retired commercial airline pilot, told Forbes. Sometimes, though, the device goes into thermal runaway and catches fire. For example, on April 9, an American Airlines flight from Indianapolis to Los Angeles was diverted to Chicago after a passenger’s portable battery charger caught fire and was extinguished by crew members. On a Jan. 15 United Airlines flight from Washington’s Dulles airport to San Francisco, a passenger's cell phone went into thermal runaway and the crew used a thermal containment bag.
FAA: Lithium Battery Incidents On Planes Now Happening More Than Once Per Week (Forbes)