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Lithium-ion batteries have been known to explode or ignite while in use in a laptop. But the Federal Aviation Administration is now warning airlines that these same batteries may ignite when not in use, but stored in a hot cargo hold.
The warning comes after a United Parcel Service 747-400 crashed last month travelling over Dubai. The cargo was a large shipment of lithium batteries, and both pilots were killed.
The problem stems from the fact cargo holds are not usually temperature controlled. So if a plane is in a situation where the hold can get hot any batteries have the potential to ignite by moving out of their normal safe temperature range. If this happens in-flight there’s a serious risk of further problems we don’t want to think about.
At the moment the FAA is advising companies who run aircraft of what they can do to minimize the risk. But keep this in mind if you are travelling, and if you can, keep your batteries in your hand luggage and the cool air conditioning of the passenger compartment.
