Passengers on the flights of Southwest Airlines will soon have to keep their portable chargers at sight while using them due to concerns concerning the growing number of lithium battery fires In a new policy that other airlines can adopt.
Southwest announced the new policy that will come into force on May 28 and said that passengers may have already seen notifications on the advanced rule when using the airline application.
There is more and more concern about lithium-ion battery fires on planes because the number of incidents continues to grow each year, and the devices fueled by these batteries are omnipresent. There have already been 19 incidents involving these batteries this year, after a record summit of 89 of last year, according to Federal Aviation Administration statistics.
The incidents have more than doubled since the minimum of the pandemic era of 39 in 2020 and climbed each year.
AP Audio: Southwest Airlines will demand that the chargers be kept away when used due to battery fire problems
If you fly southwest, Lisa Dwyer de la AP reports that there is a new rule on the chargers you should know.
Compared to around 180,000 American flights, American airlines operate every week, the number of incidents is still relatively small and lithium batteries can overheat anywhere. However, this is an increasing concern for airlines.
Last summer, A smoking laptop In a passenger bag, led to the evacuation of a plane awaiting takeoff at San Francisco International Airport. In 2023, a flight from Dallas to Orlando, Florida, had an emergency landing in Jacksonville, Florida, after a battery Fire in an air trash.
Southwest said that requiring these chargers is kept outside when used will help because “in the rare case, a lithium battery overheat or takes fire, quick access is critical and keeps electric banks at sight, allow faster intervention and helps protect everyone on board.”
The airline will allow chargers to be stored inside handbags when not used.
THE Transport security administration has long prohibited electronic cigarettes and chargers and electricity banks with lithium-ion batteries in checkered bags, but Allows them in hand luggage. The rule exists precisely because fires in cargo taking could be more difficult to detect and extinguish.
The FAA recommends that passengers keep mobile phones and other devices near the planes so that they can access it quickly. The agency said that driving crews are trained to recognize and respond to lithium battery fires. Passengers must immediately inform the driving crew if their battery or lithium device overheated, developed, smoked or burns.
A precedent report Released last year by UL Standards & Commitment, electronic cigarettes overheated more often than any other device. More than a quarter of the passengers interviewed for this study said they were putting cigarettes and portable chargers in the checkered bags. This is contrary to federal rules.
UL Standards & Commitment, which is part of a science-science company formerly known as Underwriters Laboratories, said that it had based its results on the data of 35 passenger and cargo airlines, including nine of the 10 main American carriers.
