SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea has tightened regulations on carrying lithium batteries aboard planes, effective Saturday, as concerns grow over the potential fire hazards posed by these widely used power sources in mobile phones and e-cigarettes.
The new rules come as a response to an increasing series of incidents when lithium batteries overheated aboard planes. Incident reports soared to three per fortnight in 2023, compared to less than one a week in 2018, in the view of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Aviation authorities around the world have long known about the dangers of lithium batteries, revising safety regulations after each crash. From the new South Korean rules, domestic air passengers will be mandated to keep power banks and e-cigarettes on their bodies rather than stowing them in overhead bins. Charging gadgets in-flight is now prohibited, and strict guidelines for the number and capacity of batteries will be implemented.
The changes follow heightened public outcry following a fire that engulfed an Air Busan aircraft in January as it was preparing for takeoff. Although the investigators have not determined the cause, an interim report released on Thursday indicated that the fire had begun in an overhead stowage locker after passengers had boarded. All 170 passengers and six crew members were evacuated safely before the aircraft was destroyed.
“Existing firefighting procedures have proven to be effective when dealing with lithium battery incidents on board,” said a spokesperson for the International Air Transport Association. “But in the event of incidents on the ground, the best course of action is to evacuate the aircraft immediately.”
Growing Risks of Lithium Battery Blazes
Lithium metal batteries and lithium metal—employed in ordinary consumer devices like e-cigarettes, power packs, tablets, laptops, and mobile phones—are extremely risky because they tend to overheat and ignite. When there are hundreds of such batteries being transported by passengers on an overcrowded flight, even minor damage such as a phone getting squished between two seats is sufficient to produce dangerous short circuits.
Experts indicate that overheating lithium batteries are not only capable of generating heat and smoke but also explosions, which emit extremely hot gel and debris at high velocity, similar to shrapnel. Realizing this danger, the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) prohibited passenger planes from shipping lithium batteries as cargo in 2016. This came after two deadly crashes—one of a UPS freighter in Dubai in 2010 and another involving an Asiana Airlines cargo aircraft in South Korea in 2011—were both caused by severe fires fueled by lithium batteries in the cargo compartments.
Current air regulations mandate that power banks and personal electronic devices be carried in the cabin and not placed in checked luggage so that flight attendants can readily address a malfunction. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published a December 2024 report indicating that passengers continue to place non-compliant lithium batteries in their checked luggage, necessitating more screening procedures.
To enhance safety, the air transport sector is looking into novel detection methods, such as using smell-detection dogs to detect lithium batteries in bags.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Ros Russell)
