Southwest limiting each passenger to one portable charger per flight

Southwest limiting each passenger to one portable charger per flight

Southwest Airlines is cracking down on portable chargers, rolling out a strict new coverage wherein passengers can only carry one charger each and are barred from placing the devices in overhead bins due to issues over midair fireplace dangers.

The Dallas-based provider said vacationers will likely be allowed just one lithium-powered charger per individual, capped at 100 watt-hours, and must maintain the device both on their individual or in a bag under the seat.

The transfer, reported on Wednesday by Fox Business, marks a major escalation in airline security guidelines surrounding so-called “power banks,” which have more and more been linked to onboard smoke and fireplace incidents.

Southwest Airlines is limiting passengers to one portable energy device and banning overhead storage as issues develop over onboard battery fires. REUTERS

In an inside message to workers, Dave Hunt, the airline’s vice chairman of security and safety, said the coverage — which takes impact April 20 — is geared toward strengthening the provider’s ability to “contain and mitigate lithium battery incidents, including reducing the risk of battery fires.”

Southwest said it plans to notify clients of the modifications at a number of factors before journey — including during reserving and check-in — in addition to by way of airport signage and onboard bulletins.

The airline added that entry to onboard energy will broaden in the coming years, with plans to equip its whole fleet with in-seat energy by mid-2027 in an effort to scale back reliance on portable chargers.

Hunt said the coverage displays Southwest’s broader security priorities, calling it a part of the airline’s effort to enhance its security tradition while lowering accidents, harm and safety incidents.

“Our approach reflects our culture of safety and security in action: proactively managing risk and caring for our customers and people at every step,” Hunt said.

The crackdown comes roughly a 12 months after Southwest first required passengers to maintain portable chargers in plain sight while in use — a coverage designed to guarantee flight crews may shortly establish overheating devices before they escalated into emergencies.

Under that rule, passengers had been barred from utilizing chargers while they had been saved in luggage or overhead bins.

Lithium-powered devices like portable batteries have been linked to a rising variety of onboard smoke and fireplace incidents. o_lypa – inventory.adobe.com

The airline is now going additional, proscribing how many devices passengers can carry and the place they’ll retailer them — highlighting rising alarm across the aviation business over lithium battery dangers.

Air security professional and retired United Airlines captain Steven Arroyo said the new restrictions are a vital response to a doubtlessly catastrophic hazard.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction … to address the potential for these lithium batteries when they overheat leading to a thermal runaway,” he told The Post.

Thermal runaway is a sequence response wherein a lithium battery overheats, releases flammable gases and may shortly ignite — sometimes reigniting even after being put out.

“That’s the worst thing you could have happening on board an airliner at 35,000 feet,” he added.

“It’s basically an uncontrollable fire,” Arroyo said.

Airlines are tightening guidelines as crews face rising dangers from overheating batteries inside passenger cabins. andrey gonchar – inventory.adobe.com

Recent incidents involving US carriers demonstrated how shortly these conditions can escalate — even when the devices themselves are small.

In 2016, an American Airlines flight from Detroit to Dallas was pressured to divert to Wichita Falls, Texas, after an influence pack emitted fumes and was suspected of getting into thermal runaway — the chain response that can lead to an uncontrollable fireplace.

Weeks later, a Delta Air Lines flight pushing again from the gate at Newark noticed a portable battery ignite inside a seat pocket, forcing crew members to act shortly to extinguish the device before departure. The incident delayed the flight by more than half an hour, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Other circumstances have unfolded midair. In 2022, flight attendants and crew aboard an American Airlines flight rushed to a laptop computer that started smoking and burning inside a passenger’s backpack, prompting an onboard response before the airplane reached the gate.

In 2023, a Spirit Airlines flight from Dallas to Orlando was diverted to Jacksonville after smoke poured from an overhead bin — and become a hearth when a bag was opened. Passengers suffered burns and smoke inhalation in the chaos.

Earlier this 12 months, a United Airlines flight was diverted when a passenger’s battery started smoking.

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