Flying is getting more and more complicated every year, with new restrictions coming up every time we pack our bags, from the liquid limit to the carryon size that seems to get smaller every day to the electronics regulation to the myriad of things you can no longer carry unless it is checked in and now, what it seems like an uno reverse, the things you can only have if they are in your carryon luggage. It can make catching a flight an ordeal.
Security theater has been a thing for more than twenty years now, and while in the beginning some of the restrictions made sense to passengers, they have only gotten worse with time and now many are wondering where the line is. Other times, these restrictions are truly for our safety during the flight, even if we do not see it straight away.
The latest change in rules pertains to power banks, and unlike previous iterations of these rules, this time it makes sense to ban them.
Why power banks and portable batteries are no longer allowed in flights
That might be a bit of an exaggeration, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued new guidelines that state that starting on March 1 checked luggage will not be allowed to have any rechargeable power bank. This new edict came after there were two separate incidents in which these portable chargers caught fire.
The latest incident happened in January, when a power bank caused a fire onboard an Air Busan flight, BX391, in South Korea. Luckily for everyone involved, the plane had not yet taken off when the cabin began to fill with smoke coming from an overhead compartment and the crew were able to safely evacuate all 170 passengers without injuries or casualties. The plane was not so lucky and had so much damage that it had to be decommissioned.
This latest incident prompted Air Busan, EVA Air, and China Airlines to all ban power banks from checked bags, because if this incident had happened mid flight in the cargo section of the plane, the consequences would have been a lot worse. The issues with batteries overheating or exploding have been going on for years now, but it is significantly worse when the battery is not permanently attached to a device, as these have even less manufacturing control and safety checks and have an even bigger tendency to malfunction and cause damage.
The FAA also reasoned in their PackSafe guidelines that “thermal runaway can occur without warning. [And that is why] Spare lithium ion and lithium metal batteries must be carried in carry-on baggage only.”
The power banks that have been banned from checked luggage are:
- Power banks
- Cell phone battery charging cases
- Rechargeable and non-rechargeable lithium batteries
- Cell phone batteries
- Laptop batteries
- External batteries
- Portable rechargers
As with every other rule that has been established and enforced by the TSA, whether or not passengers will be able to board their plane with one of this devices will depend entirely on the person that they encounter at the security screening. As the official TSA website says that while the power banks are banned, “the final decision rests with the TSA officer on whether an item is allowed through the checkpoint.”
What this means in practical terms is that you would be significantly better off traveling with as few electronics as possible and carrying them with you at all times, without any external power bank sources, as these could be confiscated if they are deemed unsafe for any reason whatsoever and arguing with a security agent will only get you in trouble and banned from your flight.