Southwest implements surprising crackdown on…
They’re placing the squeeze on further juice.
Southwest Airlines is implementing a surprising new restriction on transportable chargers to keep these notoriously incendiary gadgets from bursting into flame mid-flight.
Starting on May 28, passengers shall be required to keep their energy banks in plain sight, making the finances service the first to roll out a coverage of this sort.
“In the rare event a lithium battery overheats or catches fire, quick access is critical and keeping power banks in plain sight allows for faster intervention and helps protect everyone onboard,” a Southwest rep mentioned. andrey gonchar – stock.adobe.com
“Using portable charging devices while stored in a bag or overhead bin will no longer be permitted,” a Southwest spokesperson advised Business Insider. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees.”
They will, however, permit passengers to keep the gadgets in their carry-on luggage when not in use.
The logic is that the transportable cellphone juicers run on lithium-ion batteries that can overheat and ignite, so retaining them in plain sight permits flight attendants to determine and extinguish the hazard before it’s too late.
“In the rare event a lithium battery overheats or catches fire, quick access is critical and keeping power banks in plain sight allows for faster intervention and helps protect everyone onboard,” a Southwest rep mentioned, according to Fortune.
In March, passengers flying from Malaysia to Thailand have been thrown into a panic after a energy bank ignited in the overhead bin and stuffed the cabin with smoke proper before touchdown.
Passengers shall be allowed to store their gadgets in their carry-on luggage when not in use. REUTERS
While Southwest has not applied the coverage yet, passengers have been receiving notifications via the airline’s app warning them to keep the chargers out of their luggage and “in plain sight” and to chorus from utilizing them in the bags compartments, per a viral Reddit post.
This coverage comes amid an annual uptick in incidents of energy banks catching fire in-flight.
Passengers verify in for Southwest Airlines flights at Chicago Midway International Airport on February 18, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. Getty Images
According to Federal Aviation Administration statistics, there have already been 19 incidents involving batteries in 2025, while final 12 months there have been a document 89 charger-related points.
Although still a comparatively low risk when factoring in the roughly 180,000 flights US airways operate each week, airways have been ramping up restrictions on the blaze-inducing battery boosters.
Korean Airlines not too long ago prohibited passengers from storing chargers in overhead bins, requiring them to as an alternative keep the gadgets in plastic luggage or cowl their ports with insulation tape to stop them from touching steel.
This coverage was applied in response to a devastating inferno that injured seven aboard passengers an Air Busan aircraft in January, although it’s unclear if the flames have been precipitated by a battery.
Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways now ban the use of transportable chargers during flights, while Australia’s Qantas Airlines requires that they be saved in carry-on baggage only.
And it’s not just airways that are tightening controls over these inadvertent explosive gadgets.
The TSA just banned lithium-battery-powered transportable chargers from checked baggage following a new advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“When a carry-on bag is checked at the gate or at planeside, all spare lithium batteries and power banks must be removed from the bag and kept with the passenger in the aircraft cabin,” the FAA wrote. “The battery terminals must be protected from short circuit[ing].”
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