They have a "fire containment bag" they can chuck it in should you notice it getting hot or smoking.
https://www.virginatlantic.com/en-US/help/articles/powerbank...
In China (Mainland of course), they will toss your powerbank at security if it isn't approved, and the approval they are using is rather recent and Chinese specific, thankfully most recent powerbanks made in China have the approval. They are very efficient in snuffing out powerbanks also, their thoroughness would definitely make our TSA blush.
> But the onboard outlets were good enough for anything I needed to do during the 15+ hour flight.
Only if those plugs are actually working....sigh.
Agree that China TSA equivalent > US TSA.
Hence why many places bring a container filled with water to extinguish an EV fire, and then probably send it to a wet shredder to make sure it doesn't re-ignite.
We cut the rate of fire (already low) in half by containing compromised batteries. It’s something like 0.02%-0.03% which is significant given the massive scope. Something like 200k devices and about 3% with battery issues of all types.
When you think about the number of flights, passengers with lithium batters and challenges of the airplane environment, it’s a hard problem. We’re lucky the engineering around these devices are as good as it is.
https://practical.engineering/blog/2025/4/15/when-kitty-litt...
Sounds like the cleanup costs were largely related to the fact that the reaction caused an airtight drum to explode and spew radioactive waste throughout the facility, though, which presumably wouldn't apply to the "metal fire on an aircraft" scenario.
I'm curious what would actually happen, worst case.
Assuming the metal fire couldn't be extinguished, could it at least be contained to melt a small enough hole in the aircraft to safely land?
My guess on the plane scenario, there are enough secondary effects (smoke, insulation/trim/carpet/seats catching on fire) that would bring down the plane. but I don't think a personal battery has enough fuel to burn thru. I think the isolation bags are probably just aluminum(perhaps steel) foil. enough layers to let the infernal thing burn out without catching anything else on fire. You probably still get a lot of nasty smoke.
I try not to keep any in drawers but possibly in one open place and having fire blanket close to that stand.
Fire blanket would not help much for thermal runaway but I guess it would be better than nothing for containment or at least getting that one away from all the other batteries so they don’t chain react.
We had an incident where a laptop with a swollen battery fell and lit up in a public way. It attracted attention and some research was done - they realized it happened a dozen times a year. Hazardous disposal options vary by location. So the question became… what should be done with these compromised batteries before they get disposed of?
It’s a simple thing that costs nothing. It’s like a fire extinguisher to me - I’ve never experienced a fire at work, yet we have extinguishers and exit signage everywhere.
That said, the rate of burning batteries is very low. (Like 0.001%) Unless you have a ton of people and different use profiles, you’ll never see this happen.
Maritime patrol aircraft like the P-8 already have such a system, for releasing sonobuoys and float-flares while at altitude.
So it's not a technical issue, more one of regulation and maintenance.
Meh, it's a risk reduction thing. Aircraft sometimes dump fuel too in emergencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_dumping
Earth is covered with a lot of water too, if you could eject it... risk is approaching zero on dumping a flaming battery over ocean.