The Problem With Stowing Lithium-Ion Batteries on Planes

[McFurd]

Consumer Reports - 3/23/2017 - Bree Fowler and Allen St. John - New curbs on electronics raise old questions about the safest place to put them. A ban on most electronics in the cabins of some U.S.-bound flights may be aimed at thwarting terrorist attacks, but it also raises questions about the safest place to stow devices with lithium-ion batteries on airplanes. The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that laptops and other large electronic devices won't be allowed in the passenger cabins of direct flights to the U.S. from 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa. The move is in response to intelligence reports that terrorists are looking for new ways to place explosives in electronic devices on airplanes. Passengers on these flights will now be required to pack devices in their checked luggage. Yet because the lithium-ion batteries in laptops occasionally—though rarely—burst into flames, the new rule raises the question: Is it dangerous to store hundreds of laptops in suitcases in the hold of an airplane? Read more @ http://www.consumerreports.org/electron ... on-planes/