Features Podcasts Family Video Comics Music Tech Science Books Film & TV Games ✚

Jill

Laptop batteries burst into flames on planes?

Xeni Jardin at 8:07 am Fri, Jul 14, 2006

— FEATURED —

Book Review

Lexicon: smart, sharp technothriller from Max "Jennifer Government" Barry

Book Review

The 'Geisters: spooky, scary novel

Science

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

— FOLLOW US —

Boing Boing is on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to our RSS feed or daily email.

 

— POLICIES —

Except where indicated, Boing Boing is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution

 

— FONTS —

Tweet
Kindle
NTSB investigators are looking in to whether laptop batteries burst into flames on board a UPS cargo flight in February. A fire blamed on the lithium batteries injured all three crewmembers and forced an emergency landing. Snip:
Several other incidents have occurred in recent years in which lithium batteries – used in laptops and cell phones – have caught fire aboard airplanes. Less than two months ago in Chicago, a spare laptop battery packed in a bag stored in an overhead bin started emitting smoke, chief crash investigator Frank Hilldrup of the NTSB testified Wednesday.

A flight attendant used an extinguisher and the bag was removed, but the bag caught fire on a ramp, Hilldrup said. Investigators in the Philadelphia fire found that several computer laptop batteries were on board the plane, and that in many cases portions of the laptop batteries had burned, he said.

“It is not known at this time the role these batteries may have played in the fire,” Hilldrup said.

Link (Thanks, Chris thompson)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle