ICAO issued new power bank restriction on flight

https://www.icao.int/news/new-power-bank-restrictions-will-safeguard-international-aviation

by phantomathkg • 4 months ago

95 183 4 months ago

Liftyee• 4 months ago

Interesting... anyone know if they've released the rationale/data behind this? I could see a few reasons why power banks present a larger risk than phones/computers (battery capacity, quality control), but it seems like the 100Wh battery limit already covers one of these.

In a similar vein, China banned non-CCC certified (the equivalent to UL or CE) power banks on flights from 2025, which seems to be targeting the quality control side of the problem. Not just on paper - the security officers inspected every lithium battery I was carrying, even the one in my flashlight.

tristanj2• 4 months ago

Look up Air Busan Flight 391, a power bank in someone's carryon caused the entire plane to burn down in 5 minutes. The airplane (an Airbus A321) was destroyed. The only reason there was not total loss of life was because the plane hadn't taken off yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Busan_Flight_391

ranger_danger• 4 months ago

This could happen with any battery-powered device though. But I don't see ICAO or FAA banning e.g. laptops any time soon, even though they may carry more energy than a single power bank.

sofixa• 4 months ago

I could see a few reasons why power banks present a larger risk than phones/computers (battery capacity, quality control), but it seems like the 100Wh battery limit already covers one of these.

Yeah, and it's the other one that is the main problem. It is simply impossible to know the quality of a power bank by looking at it.

China banned non-CCC certified (the equivalent to UL or CE)

And it costs nothing to stamp the logo as if you're certified without actually going through any certification. Powerbanks are almost expendable, and can be acquried from supermarkets, corner shops, airports, even night clubs. There are even disposable ones (horrible idea). The more complex and expensive the device (like a laptop), the more certain can you be that there will be at least some quality control. In a $5/5eur powerbank, which any one could potentially be, it's almost guaranteeed there would be none.

fmajid• 4 months ago

One deterrent is, in China corporate criminals are executed, like those who put melamine in infant formula.

capnrefsmmat• 4 months ago

Discussion is included in the Dangerous Goods Panel report, agenda item 4.3 (pages 39-41) and Appendix E (beginning page 89). https://www.icao.int/sites/default/files/DangerousGoods/DGP%...

Paragraph 4.3.3:

While data indicated that portable electronic devices were more often the cause of fire in aircraft cabins than power banks were, the latter were a significant concern due to their increased use and a prevalence of lower-quality products with defects or vulnerabilities that were more likely to lead to thermal events. Power banks were also not offered the same level of protection that batteries installed in portable electronic devices were provided. The amendments therefore focused on power banks.

trebligdivad• 4 months ago

Another possibility is that you tend to keep an eye on where your phone and laptop are; there have been some plane fires where people drop a phone into a seat and it ends up getting bent, but at least they notice it fairly quickly. (Will people know the direction if their USB-C power bank is charging from their phone or their phone is charging from their power bank?)

dbcurtis• 4 months ago

It seems to me that compared to your phone, a power brick dangling off a charging cable is much more likely to slip off your lap unnoticed and get wedged in the seat hinge only to get subsequently punctured.

I recently took a flight where I had a laptop, my phone, a power brick, a new power brick for my wife, a second phone (for reasons) and a battery for a piece of ham radio equipment in my backpack. As I got on the plane, I was thinking I was probably one of the risker passengers on board :) Anyway, when I use the brick, I keep it zipped in a jacket pocket with just the charing cable coming out in an effort to keep it from finding its way to a place that it shouldn't.

zarzavat• 4 months ago

Phones tend to be designed by companies competent enough to design a phone. There's a skill floor required that just doesn't exist for power banks.

Another reason is that phones get replaced more frequently, whereas a power bank will be continually used essentially until failure. I only stopped using my last power bank because it puffed up like a balloon.

But yes, probably where this is all headed is that some day in-seat power will be banned so that you can only discharge and not charge your devices.

mtmail• 4 months ago

Galaxy Note 7 was a notable exception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Note_7#Battery_...

yftsui• 4 months ago

“China banned non-CCC certified, … which seems to be targeting the quality control side of the problem”

that’s not fully true though, ROMOSS is the brand that sold power banks caught fire, however all of those were CCC certified.

nharada2• 4 months ago

Was expecting to be annoyed but this seems reasonable. You can have 2 power banks and can't charge them during flight

quantummagic6• 4 months ago

Limiting the devices to two per person seems nonsensical to me. The devices are either dangerous, or they're not. If they're dangerous, two is too many. And if they're not, then why limit them only to two?

ddalex• 4 months ago

Quantity is a quality of its own.

Maybe there is enough plane onboard capacity to deal with just 50 batteries, let's say; multiply the failure rate expected and the pax capacity of the plane and you get how many batteries you can afford to have onboard and still be able to deal with worst case scenario.

bryant• 4 months ago

More batteries, more likely that you'll have even just one of them fail. Since even one of them (to your point) failing is enough of a reason to divert the flight, better to start by reducing the probability of that happening in ways people can swallow.

quantummagic6• 4 months ago

So having 500 batteries on board is okay.. but 750 is too risky? I just have a hard time believing that the math is actually mathing in this case. Maybe you're right, and this is just a first step to get people to gradually accept more restrictions.

nharada2• 4 months ago

The devices are either dangerous, or they're not

That's not actually how it works though, it's all a risk and percentages. Nobody says "driving is either safe or it's not" or "delivering a baby is either safe or it's not"

quantummagic6• 4 months ago

That's not actually how it works though. There's a reason we restrict people to zero bombs allowed on board.

SilasX2• 4 months ago

Correct, but I agree with the parent that this is a dubious case to apply that reasoning.

To make it clearer, imagine another context: "It's dangerous for a passenger to have a gun on board. Therefore, we're strictly limiting passengers to only two guns."

Like, no. The relevant sad case is present with one gun just as with two.

Of course, what complicates it is that these power banks present a small but relevant risk of burning and killing everyone on board. So yeah, you might be below the risk threshold if everyone brought two, but not three. So it's not inherently a stupid idea, but requires a really precise risk calculation to justify that figure.

avidiax• 4 months ago

Maybe it's a sort of build-quality proxy.

Someone bringing 150 "lipstick" single-cell promotional chargers -> bad

Someone bringing one phone and one laptop battery pack -> OK

If you are limited to two, you are probably not bringing anything that is near e-waste quality.

hollerith• 4 months ago

Way to lean into binary thinking.

quantummagic6• 4 months ago

Do you save your snark for batteries only, or are you equally liberally minded with your non-binary thinking about the number of bombs allowed on board?

tristanj2• 4 months ago

These items are dangerous. The FAA limit for power bank capacity is 100Wh (~27000mAh), which is 360kJ of energy. A hand grenade has approximately 700-800 kJ of energy.

Two powerbanks contain the same amount of energy as a hand grenade.

drum554• 4 months ago

That's a kind of meaningless comparison. Peanuts are about 8kJ per gram supposedly, by your measure we should ban even small amounts of peanuts on planes because 100 grams of them contain more energy than a hand grenade. Without talking about the time frame over which the energy can be released you'd have to make sure that everybody went onto the plane completely naked lest their clothes ignited.

dataflow• 4 months ago

If one power bank has independent probability p of failure, then n of them have probability 1 - (1 - p)^n of failure.

What you're saying is equivalent to claiming that this quantity is somehow independent of n.

amelius• 4 months ago

Just give us internet free of extra charge.

longislandguido5• 4 months ago

Power banks were a mistake. It's akin to carrying fireworks in your bag. Ban them all from air travel.

Every one I have owned has been recalled for being a fire hazard. EVERY SINGLE ONE. I stopped buying them as a result. We're talking name brand devices, not junk off AliExpress.

miyuru• 4 months ago

what about your mobile phone or laptop?

longislandguido5• 4 months ago

Phone batteries are typically smaller (less energy which can be violently dissipated) than most power banks.

Naturally you will ask, what about tablets and laptops? They are prohibited from checked luggage for this reason. Power banks however are smaller and easier to conceal.

The risk is really in a fire developing in your bag down below in cargo, where no one can see it. By the time the fire alarms go off, it's too late and good luck if you are over water or the Arctic. If it happens upstairs they can at least tend to it with a fire extinguisher or bag/blanket.

See ValuJet Flight 592, fire in an airplane's cargo hold is probably one of the scariest ways to slowly die.

It's all about corralling risk. You can't tell people they can't bring their laptops. But power banks are unnecessary nice-to-haves.

omcnoe• 4 months ago

Powerbanks are simply manufactured to lower standards, by companies that have no brand accountability.

thih93• 4 months ago

Do you remember the model names?

drum554• 4 months ago

I've never had any issues with brand name, not dollar store power banks and I've been using them for more than a decade. I'd totally expect a $5 pink power bank from a alphabet amazon seller to be an issue, but anything modern and reasonable like Anker are very unlikely to cause you any issues. Balancing, protection are very much solved issues at this point for the cell chemistries we use.

If LiPo was the issue, using LiFePo4 or LTO cells for planes would be a totally reasonable alternative too. LTO cells are so safe the manufacturer of them has videos on youtube of them hammering nails into the cells, cutting them with a saw, and crushing them with a press and they don't really care.

derekerdmann• 4 months ago

Not really, even Anker recalled a huge number of power banks last year: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2025/Anker-Power-Banks-Recalled...

longislandguido5• 4 months ago

You bring dollar store power banks onto airplanes?

majorchord4• 4 months ago

"Phones were a mistake. Every one I have owned has been recalled for being a fire hazard."

netsharc• 4 months ago

It's great technology, but sadly humans are fucking morons, and dodgy manufacturers making explosive power banks has lead to the restrictions...

Although honestly how bad is it, powerbanks are very popular, I can imagine in some regions there'd be hundreds of flights taking off daily with 150+ power banks on board (the majority of passengers on a 737), and they've all landed safely.

In my city, I could scan a QR code and pay the parking meter that way. Now they've decomissioned this and you have to go to the app and select the section of the road you're parked at. Why, because scammers made scammy QR codes. Great tech, can't have them because humanity's inherent scumbaggery.

toast0• 4 months ago

My power banks are my power tool batteries. Charge or discharge via usb-c; drills and things use traditional rails.

bombcar• 4 months ago

I've heard stories about power tool batteries going up, but I've never seen it.

I've seen many spicy pillows and even a thermal runaway or two on the flatpack batteries.

snops• 4 months ago

Many airlines are going much further than this, for instance Virgin Atlantic ban you from either charging or charging from any power bank, and you can't keep them in the overhead locker, you must keep them next to you in case it starts burning spontaneously!

They have a "fire containment bag" they can chuck it in should you notice it getting hot or smoking.

https://www.virginatlantic.com/en-US/help/articles/powerbank...

OptionOfT• 4 months ago

Crazy thing about these bags is that they're just containment. Once the thermal runaway has started, it's very hard to start as it brings its own oxygen, heat and fuel.

Hence why many places bring a container filled with water to extinguish an EV fire, and then probably send it to a wet shredder to make sure it doesn't re-ignite.

Spooky233• 4 months ago

My company distributed buckets filled with cat litter for containment to every branch office.

We cut the rate of fire (already low) in half by containing compromised batteries. It’s something like 0.02%-0.03% which is significant given the massive scope. Something like 200k devices and about 3% with battery issues of all types.

When you think about the number of flights, passengers with lithium batters and challenges of the airplane environment, it’s a hard problem. We’re lucky the engineering around these devices are as good as it is.

avemg• 4 months ago

I am going to ask a question that I’m a little scared to ask because I suspect it’s really dumb, but here goes: is it at all feasible or practical to have a way to jettison a runaway battery from the aircraft? I guess most of the time the problems happen because nobody knows there’s a problem before it’s gotten too out of control for that.

dpb0012• 4 months ago

I flew Cathay Pacific late January and power banks were prohibited in both checked luggage and overhead bins. Of course the overhead bin restriction would have been difficult to police and enforce. Also prohibited to use them for charging devices or to be charged from the onboard USB outlets. But the onboard outlets were good enough for anything I needed to do during the 15+ hour flight.

seanmcdirmid5• 4 months ago

of course the overhead bin restriction would have been difficult to police and enforce.

In China (Mainland of course), they will toss your powerbank at security if it isn't approved, and the approval they are using is rather recent and Chinese specific, thankfully most recent powerbanks made in China have the approval. They are very efficient in snuffing out powerbanks also, their thoroughness would definitely make our TSA blush.

But the onboard outlets were good enough for anything I needed to do during the 15+ hour flight.

Only if those plugs are actually working....sigh.

baggy_trough• 4 months ago

I couldn't find the actual regulation. What counts as a "power bank"? I travel with a bunch of GoPro batteries, but they are smaller.

broadsidepicnic2• 4 months ago

It's no regulation, per se. ICAO sets up rules and its up to member states to create regulation based on that.

aitchnyu• 4 months ago

Umm, did they mention the Joules (mAh) limit and combustibility?

physhster• 4 months ago

Some airlines and/or local aviation authorities have additional restrictions. China wants CCC certified power banks, Thailand has a strict 160 Wh limit. Both are very strictly enforced.

rootusrootus• 4 months ago

Seems reasonable enough, though it will require a little extra work if you're the designated battery-carrier when your family flies somewhere.

perching_aix2• 4 months ago

Fingers crossed the Donut Lab solid state battery ends up being the real deal, lives up to the hype, and this sillyness can finally go away. Recent tests look promising from a (lack of a) thermal runaway standpoint at least.

The only question is if the rules will mind the difference in battery composition and chemistry.

Animats2• 4 months ago

Most of the solid state batteries have far less thermal runaway problem than lithium-ion batteries. At this point, several companies have working demo solid state batteries, but the price is far too high. Mercedes has one demo car with a solid state battery. Ducati has one motorcycle. Donut Labs just has one demo cell, not even enough for their motorcycle. The technology works but is so expensive there aren't even multiple prototypes.

Samsung says they will ship some solid state batteries in watches and earbuds this year, where the batteries are so tiny they're affordable. Even solid state batteries for phones are still too costly. Everybody in the industry is trying to solve the production price problem. Consensus is that the price starts to come down around 2028 or so.

Lithium iron phosphate batteries don't have a thermal runaway problem, either, but they have about half the Wh/Kg of lithium-ion, so they're not popular for portable devices.

Ten years out, lithium-ion batteries will probably be obsolete technology and totally prohibited on aircraft.

jacquesm3• 4 months ago

What is your take on Lithium-Titanate (sp?) cells?

Dylan168072• 4 months ago

Donut Labs just has one demo cell, not even enough for their motorcycle.

They sent in multiple cells for lab testing, but more importantly the second Donut demo was a motorcycle charging.

HaloZero• 4 months ago

So wait if solid state is too expensive? What replaces lithium ion batteries? What breakthrough do you expect in solid state to make it cheaper in 2028?

mhjkl• 4 months ago

Afaik sodium batteries are much safer than li-ion and already in mass production. Unless Donut scales up really quick I think it will be more viable to just use sodium batteries for safety in the medium-term future

pezezin• 4 months ago

We bought a sodium battery for our last trip, and it turns out that most airline companies don't even know what sodium batteries are and don't have any provision in their regulations, they are as restricted as lithium batteries :(

YesBox• 4 months ago

I wasn't sure what a solid state battery is, so I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Fun fact though:

Between 1831 and 1834, Michael Faraday discovered the solid electrolytes silver sulfide and lead(II) fluoride, which laid the foundation for solid-state ionics. Through his research, Michael Faraday took note of these solid compounds transitioning from insulators to conductors after being heated. While this would take almost another century to be acknowledged by Michael O'Keeffe in 1976, this mixed ionic/electronic conductions became the first record of a solid-state battery

(emphasis mine)

numpad0• 4 months ago

Aren't those just regular Li-ion with thickened electrolyte solution? There seem to be some noises around "almost solid" batteries pushing the definition of the word "solid".

The real production solid states are made with inorganic materials, many not in pouches nor cylinders, and has wild environmental resistance like supporting charges in -55 to +125C(-70 to +260F) which won't be possible with most water inside.

perching_aix2• 4 months ago

One of the recent high temp tests showed a degradation in capacity that is supposedly [0] strongly consistent with solid state tech. I'm not qualified to know better unfortunately.

[0] https://youtu.be/vWwPySIm9tU?t=511

brcmthrowaway• 4 months ago

Can a battery be built up the same way as DRAM? Why are we using weird chemicals?

aftbit5• 4 months ago

broadsidepicnic2• 4 months ago

Pilot here.

While I definitely approve this and consider the limit to be one too many, I wish ecigarettes would be rather the target as soon as possible. Those are dangerous, and lately the most potential culprit for lithium related problems aboard.

tadfisher• 4 months ago

That is surprising to me, considering the sheer number of phones/tablets/laptops on every flight. Does anyone maintain a list of incidents?

baby_souffle• 4 months ago

I can't imagine that the QA process for vapes is better than even the _super_ budget tablet or phone, though.

KennyBlanken• 4 months ago

Phones, tablets, and laptops are not sold in bodegas, designed to be disposable, and thus made as incredibly cheaply as possible.

The high end vapes use huge amounts of current to the point that vape users will specifically seek unprotected cells because the protection circuitry adds a slight bit of internal resistance.

So then the unprotected cells can then short out in their bags or otherwise be damaged and fail when the vape electronics fail...

arianvanp• 4 months ago

E cigarettes work by shorting the battery releasing a lot of instantenous heat. Their safety controller firmware are often of ... Dubious quality. It can happen quite often that the cigarette doesn't stop shorting the battery and catch fire as a result.

Making fire is literally their function unlike a laptop.

Combine that with basically unregulated and semi illegal supply chain and it becomes a recipe for disaster

ghighi78782• 4 months ago

A large portion of this can be avoided if arplanes just exposed a power slot in entry row like is standard in long haul flights

coldtea3• 4 months ago

Not really, as people would still carry power-banks, vapes, and so on in their carry on, to use when getting to their destination.

It's not charging a device during flight that's the issue.

darrylb422• 4 months ago

On recent WestJet flights they announced that you can't use a power bank if there is seat power available, all the flights had seat power except the smallest plane (Dash 8) and that flight was only 18 minutes. They also didn't want any batter powered devices in the overhead compartments.

On the 737s there were only two plugs per 3 seats so not everyone could be plugged in.

itopaloglu83• 4 months ago

They’re working on stuffing us on top of each other instead.

I’m an average person and my shoulders and knees are all pushing against everything.

Scoundreller3• 4 months ago

I wouldn’t bring a power bank if the usb-a ports on most aircraft could just put out more than a measly 500ma.

girvo2• 4 months ago

I wish they’d just have normal outlets like a bunch of the 777s I’ve flown on have.

troad9• 4 months ago

Too tricky for international flights.

Easier if you have a vast domestic flight market (US, China, etc), but not really practical if you're flying across borders, which is the base case in Europe, much of Asia, etc.

With traditional outlets you also inherit the whole legacy mess of competing standards for power mains. You don't want to feed 240V to a NEMA 1-15 outlet and melt someone's device mid-flight.

I do wonder if in some far future we'll just replace wall outlets with USBs for ordinary appliances, reserving traditional outlets for major power draws like stovetops, HVAC, industrial equipment etc. Maybe planes are the vanguard of this future?

aftbit5• 4 months ago

I bring a single high-quality large power bank whenever I travel. It's hard to reliably find power for my phone, laptop, e-reader, earbuds, gamma spectrometer, flashlight, etc while in the airport or in flight. Not every plane I end up on has reliable USB chargers. Sometimes it's handy to just plug my devices in while they're in my bag.

kylehotchkiss2• 4 months ago

“gamma spectrometer” lol. Do you really?

pocksuppet3• 4 months ago

How else will you measure the radiation on your flight?

analog31• 4 months ago

Oddly enough, I was wondering: What brand? I don’t think I’d travel with one, but I’m just curious.

aftbit5• 4 months ago

Yes sir, I do!

coldtea3• 4 months ago

You could try watching an in-flight movie, or reading a book and not using any device during the flight. Crazy, I know!

BobaFloutist• 4 months ago

Airlines are doing this new fun trick where they interrupt your in-flight entertainment not only for the safety announcements, but also to play ads for their credit cards. And they'll turn up the brightness if it's turned down and turn up the volume if it's too low.

I do tend to mostly read on planes, but e-readers are nice because you can pack fifteen books into something the size of a couple of phones, and they can be backlit so you don't have to annoy your neighbor when they're trying to sleep. Back in the day I always had the problem of putting like three library books into my backpack and more into my checked bag, but I'd still finish them all before the return trip was over and be left without anything to read. With e-readers, I can check out new books mid trip, or even at the airport.

darrylb422• 4 months ago

New planes don't have screens, they may have free wifi to watch stuff on your device. Of the 6 planes I have been on in the last two weeks only one had screens. Just back from vacation :)

aftbit5• 4 months ago

I usually read a book on my e-reader and listen to music on my wireless earbuds. Half the time I'm on an airplane without an entertainment system, which is perfect as I have my own already!

flower-giraffe• 4 months ago

That is actually included in the amendment, the should seem to be a softening to allow for airline discretion for medical devices etc.

ICAO Technical Instructions (Part 8, Table 8-1 amendment):

“Spare batteries, including power banks: must not be recharged on board the aircraft; should not be used to charge portable electronic devices on board the aircraft; the number carried is limited to a maximum of two per person.”

eqvinox2• 4 months ago

Content nonwithstanding, announcing rule changes like this with immediately taking effect is just shoddy practice. At least give travellers a few weeks of heads-up.

snowchaser• 4 months ago

I just use my laptop as a powerbank these days. What I typically need to charge is a phone, with way smaller capacity than my macbook. So it works pretty well now that everything has usbc.

ICAO issued new power bank restriction on flight

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