by Jameelah Mullen
Might 8, 2025
TSA enforces compliance with new safety laws.
The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) warns vacationers that electronics containing lithium-ion batteries are not allowed in checked baggage. The company’s summer season journey advisory reminds passengers that the ban is in impact. Prohibited gadgets embrace cellphone battery charging instances, rechargeable and non-rechargeable lithium batteries, cellphone batteries, laptop computer batteries, exterior batteries, and moveable rechargers. Nevertheless, vacationers can nonetheless deliver this stuff of their carry-on baggage.
“Spare (uninstalled) lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries, together with energy banks and cellphone battery charging instances, should be carried in carry-on baggage solely. When a carry-on bag is checked on the gate or at planeside, all spare lithium batteries and energy banks should be faraway from the bag and saved with the passenger within the plane cabin. The battery terminals should be protected against quick circuits.”
TSA carried out the ban as a result of fireplace threat posed following latest incidents involving lithium-ion batteries exploding in flight. Officers decided that an overheated energy financial institution induced a fireplace that broke out on a Russian airplane in South Korea in January, resulting in the evacuation of 179 passengers and 6 crew members. In November 2024, a Southwest flight from Denver was pressured to evacuate after a passenger’s cellphone caught fireplace.
Transportable chargers and energy banks might expertise thermal runaway, by which a battery cell overheats with out warning. Thermal runaway can happen if the battery is flawed, overheated, overcharged, improperly packed, or uncovered to water.
Flight crews are skilled to reply to battery fires when one happens within the airplane cabin. The FAA urges passengers to notify their flight crew instantly if their units are overheating, increasing, smoking, or burning throughout a flight.
The TSA reminds passengers of those modifications forward of the brand new Actual ID journey necessities, which went into impact on Wednesday, Might 7. All passengers will need to have REAL ID-compliant identification to journey on industrial flights. REAL IDs are marked with a star within the higher right-hand nook. The TSA states that passengers who current non-REAL ID-compliant identification might face further safety screening.
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