Flight Safety Alert: Lithium Battery Fires Are on the Rise
Lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous in personal electronic devices and now causing fires.
Researched and written by Mike Shertz, MD/18D, not AI
Since 2006, 626 events involving smoke, fire, or extreme heat in aircraft cabins from those batteries have occurred.
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Fires in personal devices with lithium batteries is currently the most common cause of in-flight fires. Each year, the frequency of these events increases.
Once the batteries begin to overheat, they can go into thermal runaway, where one battery burns and ignites the neighboring battery, resulting in overheating and serial burning.
To prevent the overheating batteries from fully catching fire and to stop the sequence, they need to be immediately cooled with water or any nonflammable liquid (no, your mini-bar liquor bottle will not work for this purpose). Fully submerging the device in liquid allows the liquid to get inside the device and to the battery, thereby hopefully cooling the device.
On a plane, notify the flight attendants immediately, and they will take it from there.
