Laptops Could Be Banned From Checked Bags on Planes Due To Fire Risk (cnn.com)

Readers share a report: Laptops could be banned from checked baggage on planes due to a fire risk under a proposal being recommended by an international air safety panel. According to a report, an overheating laptop battery could cause a significant fire in a cargo hold that fire fighting equipment aboard the plane would not be able to extinguish. That could "lead to the loss of the aircraft," according to the proposal. The ban will be considered by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations organization, at its meeting this month. Even if the organization endorses the proposal from its Dangerous Goods Panel, which is making the recommendation, it would be up to regulators in individual nations to pass rules to enforce it. The U.S. FAA has no comment on the proposal. But it is represented on the panel that is supporting the ban, and its research on the risk of fires from laptops is included in the proposal.

Comments

Banning Lithium-Ion batters on Flights

[DatbeDank]

Lithium-Ion batteries are little bombs with the amount of energy they store. As XKCD pointed out, they're trivially easy to explode.

The only logically safe course of action is to ban all devices containing lithium-ion batteries from flights.

I knew we were going to reach this point where our desire for safety was going to conflict with our vast desire to be entertained when contained in a tin can flying through the sky!

So what's it going to be slashdotters? Fly entertained with the risk of being engulfed in a Lithium-Ion fire or be bored senseless and go back to the days of flying with a book?

I choose entertained, screw going back to the days of flying without electronics!

Re:Banning Lithium-Ion batters on Flights

[Ichijo]

The only logically safe course of action is to ban all devices containing lithium-ion batteries from flights.

Including the plane itself?

Re:Banning Lithium-Ion batters on Flights

[tlhIngan]

Also lithium fires can't be put out with water - it just makes them even worse. So the only fire suppression system in a plane that would work on them (other than a bucket of sand) would also suffocate the passengers.

Nope, not even starving the flame of oxygen works.

The problem is not just one cell venting (with flame). The deal is that reaction generates so much heat that it causes other cells to vent as well to become a runaway reaction. This brought down a UPS plane in 2001 when one battery vented and caused the rest of the batteries to vent as well from the heat . The fire suppression system even had a low pressure option - it vents the cargo hold outside, removing the oxygen. It iddn't put it out.

Incidentally, water helps only because it cools the cells back down - if you can keep the cells from heating up, you're fine.

Re:Umm OK

[OrangeTide]

I pack my laptop in the middle of my suitcase. I've never had any damage. And in some cases I'm required to check my laptop as baggage and am not allowed to carry it in cabin.

Examples include:
* if my laptop is fully discharged and I cannot boot it for the TSA agent.
* if I am travel to a country where I cannot bring a laptop in cabin for security/safety reasons.
* if the carry on is limited and I am forced to check my carry on at the gate. if given the choice between my laptop bag and my medication, I'm going to check my laptop.

certainly all the rules and requirements can be adjusted to somehow let us travel with laptops. but every day it seems like the processes are changed and end up being more convoluted and harder for travelers to comply with.