Yet another restriction to infuriate business travellers. An increasing number of airlines in Asia are banning the use of portable batteries (power banks) on board their aircraft. judging that they could endanger the safety of an aircraft. These chargers are equipped with lithium batteries that can overheat and trigger an accident on board.
This is the view of the South Korean Ministry of Transport, following the investigation into theThe fire on a plane belonging to the low-cost airline Air Busan in January. The investigation concluded that the fire was probably caused by a lithium battery fitted to an external battery.
The investigators found " multiple marks of electrical fusion on the remains of a portable battery "according to a Ministry press release. There seems to be a growing number of incidents involving the lithium batteries used in power banks in particular.
This is due to rapid ageing and manufacturing problems, as most of these banks come from China. Over the last twenty years, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recorded more than 500 incidents involving related to lithium batteries in flight, involving smoke, fire or extreme heat.
Korean ban spreads across Asia
Since the fire on the Busan Air plane, theSouth Korea therefore introduced national restrictions. They came into force in March. These restrictions require passengers to store their power bank in the seat pocket or under the seat. External batteries may not be left in luggage compartments or charge them using the seat's built-in USB sockets.
In addition to Korean airlines, other carriers have decided to apply similar rules. These include Thai Airways International since 15 March. The low-cost airline AirAsia, Taiwanese carriers China Airlines and Eva Air. And from April, Singapore Airlines.
Following another incident on 21 March when a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Hangzhou (China) to Hong Kong had to perform an emergency landing following a sudden explosion and fire in a power bank, all Hong Kong companies have also decided to ban the use of portable batteries. The measure comes into force on 7 April. It was followed a few days ago by the national carrier Vietnam Airlines, the low-cost carrier Vietjet Air and Malaysia Airlines. It's a safe bet that other Asian companies will follow suit. Before the anti-power bank wave reaches Europe.
