Fireplace on Virgin Airways Flight Linked to Energy Financial institution in Passenger’s Bag

Did an influence financial institution begin a fireplace on a current Virgin flight? That’s the query investigators are presently attempting to reply, as they probe an incident in Australia the place a girl’s bag burst into flames.

The incident, which concerned a flight from Sydney, occurred round 9 a.m. on Monday, simply because the airplane was descending to its vacation spot, the New York Occasions reports. After the bag burst into flames, the airplane’s cabin crammed with smoke, in accordance with experiences. The airplane’s crew managed to place out the fireplace earlier than the airplane landed, the Occasions writes.

The newspaper notes that the fireplace is “believed to have been ignited by a transportable battery contained in the bag, though the trigger stays underneath investigation.” A Virgin spokesperson informed The Guardian: “Security is at all times our highest precedence. We respect the swift {and professional} response of our flight and cabin crew, in addition to the assist of Airservices Australia firefighters.” It’s unknown which energy financial institution system was within the overhead bin. Gizmodo reached out to the airline for extra data.

Power banks, moveable chargers on your cellular phone or different units, have been the reason for many earlier in-flight fires. They’re usually powered by lithium batteries, which, once more, may very well be the offender right here. A fireplace at a Korean airport that took place in January was blamed on one such system. Virgin apparently informed the Occasions that it was “reviewing its coverage, which permits passengers to take energy banks onboard, in mild of the fireplace on Monday.”

Why do lithium batteries catch fireplace? Science tells us that batteries that overheat can “crack,” which then causes extremely flammable liquid contained in the battery to spill out and catch fire as soon as uncovered to the air.

Fires began by lithium batteries aren’t precisely a each day incidence, however, increasingly more, they’re not precisely uncommon both. Just lately released FAA data exhibits that in-flight fires spurred by the batteries have skyrocketed over the previous ten years, spiking some 388 %, according to one analysis. Since 2006, there have been 636 verified incidents involving lithium batteries, the company says. A majority of these incidents have concerned a battery pack, a cellular phone, or a laptop computer, though a big quantity have additionally concerned e-cigarettes or vapes.