Southwest is making a safety policy change. Passengers will have to keep their portable chargers in plain sight while using them during a flight.
The airline’s policy reads, “When a portable charger/power bank is used during a flight, it must be out of any baggage and remain in plain sight. Do not charge devices in the overhead bin.”
Passengers are allowed to bring up to 20 spare batteries at a time, Southwest said online.
The rules go into effect on May 28, ABC News reported.
The new policy is in response to fires caused by lithium-ion batteries, The Associated Press reported.
A fire may have been sparked by a battery on an Air Busan plane that was awaiting takeoff in South Korea in January. All 176 people on board the plane evacuated safely, but three people had minor injuries, the BBC reported at the time.
A power bank was found in an overhead luggage bin where the fire started, South Korea’s transport ministry said in March. While suspected, it has not been named the official cause of the fire.
While allowed in carry-ons, power banks have been banned in plane cargo holds since 2016.
Air Busan, after the fire, also prohibited them from being kept in carry-ons due to power banks overheating.
China Airlines, Thai Airways have similar rules, while Singapore Airlines and its low-cost brand Scoot prohibit the use or charging of power banks during flights as of April 1, the BBC reported.
Southwest is the first U.S. airline to have the use restrictions, the AP reported. The Federal Aviation Administration does not specify where batteries must be used or kept, ABC News reported.
The change will allow the crew to notice an issue and intervene if a battery overheats and catches fire, ABC News reported.
There have been 19 incidents with portable batteries this year. Last year, there were 89 issues, which was a record.
A laptop began smoking in a bag last summer, during a flight that was awaiting takeoff from San Francisco International Airport. The year before, a flight from Dallas to Orlando had an emergency landing in Jacksonville after a battery caught fire in an overhead bin, the AP reported.
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