why loose lithium batteries aren’t allowed in hold luggage, but electronics containing lithium batteries are allowed
In: 1061
The cabin is maintained at pressure. The reduced pressure in the baggage area (36,000’) can rupture old/marginal batteries. Li-ion batteries don’t handle puncture well.
https://youtu.be/zHG_FEkZUsg&t=25s
It’s a liability thing.
If you let lithium ion batteries get really cold (i.e. if they somehow ended up in the cargo area of an airplane at 40,000ft), their maximum charge is permanently and substantially diminished.
Making the announcement: “don’t put electronics in bagged luggage” means that bozos/the ignorant are going to have a really hard time suing the airport/airline
Fun fact, Lithium is one of only three elements that were formed in the Big Bang, and is the only one of the three that is solid at room temperature.
That means that the batteries in your electronics contain atoms that were created nearly 14 billion years ago.
I can make a pretty sweet grenade with a lithium battery, some tinfoil and a few ounces of acid.
So that if the batteries catch fire, it can be easily extinguished by the flight crew in the main cabin as opposed to being in the cargo hold.
Lithium battery powered items technically should not be held in the cargo hold and are classified as dangerous goods as they need to be properly stored and isolated by international safety standards.
If you have a lithium battery or battery powered item that is in your carry on or on your person then the threat is immediately accessible and the crew can do something about it.
If you have undeclared lithium battery powered items in the cargo hold and they catch fire the heat produced can set of a huge blaze really fast. While there are fire extinguishers in the cargo hold it is still allot safer to have the threat human accessible than have a chance for the fire to spread a lot faster and possibly cause a catastrophic loss of life.
When Europe changes the law to make it compulsory for smartphones to have removable batteries, will this affect the rules?
Complete products generally have much more quality control than individual batteries, for one.
3 main reasons.
1. The main one, as others have pointed out, is that the biggest risk with loose batteries are the exposed contacts shorting. Batteries inside devices are far less likely to have that happen.
2. The second main reason is that if someone’s cellphone or laptop spontaneously combusts for whatever reason the crew can try to contain it or extinguish it. If this happens in the cargo hold no one will know it’s happening until it’s a huge problem. There’s no way to access the cargo hold from inside the cabin.
3. The last reason is pretty much just the fact that nowadays it’s pretty much impossible to do something about it. Everyone has a phone and many passengers have tablets or laptops or other devices. It’s unrealistic to expect them to not travel with them or to make them hand them in, piling them all up in the same compartment only makes the risk bigger in case of a fire. Also people can barely get to their seats properly, coordinating something like that would take too much time for no real benefit.
Um… Electronics containing those batteries aren’t supposed to be checked. You just haven’t been caught I guess. They literally ask about this most of the time when I’m checking a bag.
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