Power Bank Catches Fire Aboard Chinese Airliner

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rgMekanic

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Channel NewsAsia is reporting that a flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai was delayed 3 hours yesterday after a power bank caught fire in an overhead compartment. China South Airlines stated that passengers were boarding flight CZ3539 when smoke and fire was seen coming from a passenger's bag in the overhead bin. Police investigations are underway, but it has been stated that the power bank was not in use when it caught fire.

Oh China and your exploding batteries. At least it's a good thing that this didn't happen in flight. You can find a video of the fire on twitter, unfortunately it does not show if someone had bit the battery before it caught fire.

A replacement aircraft was deployed and it eventually left Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport for Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 2.53pm China time - almost three hours after the scheduled departure time, based on data from live flight tracking site FlightAware.
 
Gee cheap knockoff battery packs causing fires who would of thought that would happen... not the 30000 for sale on amazon with 3813081038653186136 fake 5 star reviews and "amazon solving this issue" 3 years ago. nope not that.
 
oh the fun of traveling with a power bank. Always forget to pull it out of my carry on (it's a bigger guy for my laptop), and never have had a problem in the US. Leaving Amsterdam when I forgot was an entirely different story lol. I got the "we're going over to this room" treatment. Haven't forgotten again!
 
China is a place where baby formula and alcohol are frequently faked.. I would have to think if the gov can't be bothered to fix fake baby formula they ain't going to be doing much to fix the substandard batteries ...

and I doubt the U.S. gov will do anything much to protect Americans from crap Chinese knockoffs since the U.S. owes china more than a Trillion Dollars now..
 
The video is interesting. Li Ions contain their own oxidizer, so all putting water on it does is help prevent the surroundings from catching fire. The water here put it out though... I guess it was the bag that was on fire, not the power bank, or the power bank had already "vented with flame" and had already rendered itself inert. Either that, or it wasn't Li Ion batteries in the power bank.

Anyways, there's risks with Li Ion batteries that haven't been realized (in the financial sense) yet. Enjoy flying with them now while you can (assuming your flight isn't the one that ends it all).
 
They need a Bat-Safe. I have one for LiPos and then it's inside a large steel toolbox lol. I have a number cheap Chinese LiPos lol.
 
Nukester said:
And that guy about to pour orange juice on it. That is exactly why i wouldn't want to be in an electric car that catches fire. People aren't very smart!
Click to expand...

So you'd rather be in a car full of flammable liquid instead?
 
atarione said:
China is a place where baby formula and alcohol are frequently faked.. I would have to think if the gov can't be bothered to fix fake baby formula they ain't going to be doing much to fix the substandard batteries ...
Click to expand...
Well, the assholes who were responsible for the baby formula scandal didn't exactly skate free (like they probably would have in the US):
A number of criminal prosecutions were conducted by the Chinese government. Two people were executed, one given a suspended death penalty, three people receiving life imprisonment, two receiving 15-year jail terms,[6] and seven local government officials, as well as the Director of the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), being fired or forced to resign.[7]
Click to expand...

Link
 
Shopping for powerbanks online, I read a few reviews noting Asian airline security people were more strict about confiscating power banks that went above the mAh maximum. I guess this is why....
 
There goes my flights with my 20000mah bank... a high quality one that is...

Mah capacity has no bearing on the fire rosk really other than the energy density. 500mah 3.7v liPO is still plenty capable of setting fire to a house / plane etc
 
Gotta ask how many times it was dropped and slammed before it was on fire... ...People are butter fingers who don't care, just look at their iphones, all smashed. Batteries typically don't just combust without damage first.
 
I expect soon we won't be able to travel with any electronic devices. Just not worth the risk to the plane and the passengers. Flight crews can't tell if your device is a knock-off, and the safer thing is to just not allow them at all. which means shipping them to your destination at some pretty hefty cost with special packaging and labels.
 
I'm going to hazard a guess that it wasn't an Anker battery pack.... hopefully.
 
you need to douse the li-ion pack in mineral oil. Fat chance they have it onboard the plane.
 
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