Latest Laptop Ban on Flights from Middle East and African Origins May Create Fire in the Hold Threat

March 22, 2017 – Sometimes I think that the new Trump administration is really a Marx Brothers’ comedy sketch. See the 1932 film, Duck Soup, if you want to get my drift. Banning carry-ons containing laptops, tablets, e-readers, cameras, portable DVD players, electronic gaming units, travel printers,  and scanners is the latest directive from the Department of Homeland Security. It requires all passengers on nine carriers with non-stop flights from 8 Middle Eastern and 2 North African airports to check their electronics.

The idea behind this is to reduce the potential risk that such devices could be disguised bombs. The truth is the security directive which will take effect on March 25th will put lithium-ion powered devices into luggage which will act as an insulator. Captain John Cox, President of Safety Operating Systems, a veteran pilot whose business focuses on global air safety calls the ban disheartening and problematic.

Why?

Lithium-ion batteries, although popular and used in electric cars and millions of portable devices, have some problems. There is a one-in-200,000 heat-related failure rate. Samsung cell phones and laptops have overheated because of contaminants getting into the manufacturing process or because of design flaws in the form factor. Lithium-ion cells should never heat up beyond 130 Celsius (265 Fahrenheit) degrees. Beyond this temperature, the batteries experience a runaway thermal event leading to a fire as the battery combusts and melts and ignites other electronic components. If you want to see what the end result looks like, take a look at the image below.

So the new directive and policy will now put these devices in insulating luggage filled with clothes and other inflammable materials to feed combustion.

Can the fire suppression systems in a cargo hold extinguish a lithium-ion thermal runaway?

In cargo holds, airlines today use halon fire extinguishers. This technology is not rated as effective in combating a lithium-ion battery fire. Since 1991 there have been 138 events of smoke, fire, extreme heat or explosions in cargo and carry-on bags in the air. In 2016 the American Federal Aviation Administration noted five cabin fires involving lithium-ion batteries. In one case, on a Delta flight, it took three halon fire extinguishers to contain a laptop fire in an overhead bin. The bin had to be replaced and the only way the laptop could be secured from reignition was to put it in a refrigeration unit after the flames were out.

If a lithium-ion thermal runaway occurs in a cargo hold there would be no one able to fight a spontaneous combustion event. And now the United Kingdom has jumped aboard banning laptops from six Middle East countries and Canada, based on stories in the newspaper today, is also considering going along with these two.

States Cox, “I’ve worked with lithium batteries a long time….I would hope that the risk analysis was done appropriately.”

But Captain Cox we are talking about the Trump administration where the attitude is to shoot first in all directions and never listen to scientists. So do you really think they thought this policy through?