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E-Cigarette battery sparks fire on American Airlines flight

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An American Airlines passenger’s electronic cigarette “malfunctioned” Thursday and started a small fire aboard the aircraft, airline officials said. The small fire forced the flight from Dallas to Indianapolis to make an emergency landing at Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. (www.airlive.net) Mais...

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scaldedchevy
James Vallery 6
I did recently fly and took my e-cig with me. However, i transported the batteries in a seperate, flame resistent package, and not installed in the mod itself. I believe this is probably the safest way to take them with you. Eventually though, with things like this happening because of irresponsible douche bags, they will be banned from aircraft altogether.
MikeMohle
Mike Mohle 5
Hope both the user and manufacturer of this device each gets a bill from the airline, and from each passenger for their costs and time.
sparkie624
sparkie624 2
People either Don't Care about the hazards of these devices... They need to be banned from all flights! They are dangerous.
MikeMohle
Mike Mohle 4
And, no one needs them anyway.......
liko2k
Jakub Bialek 0
Based on this, all smartphones should be banned from planes because they share the same battery technology as e-cigs...
sparkie624
sparkie624 2
I am not sure what kind of statement that is supposed to be Note 7's have a history of this and they found the problem. No other phone's have. Many E-Cigs have caught fire and exploded. Quite a few people been hurt by this. Your statement makes no since and your logic is flawed. By your logic All Laptops, Hearing Aids, and many other devices should not be allowed. You may want to rethink your comment. It sounds like you may be a E-Sig user... Hope you don't get burned!
liko2k
Jakub Bialek -1
Are you sure it was battery that failed in those e-cig and not the home-made wick/heater or flammable vaping liquid? Nowhere in that article it is stated it was battery! Did your "logic" include that problems? And lastly: all those items which have LiPo batteries inside are banned from the cargo compartments...Soooo I will let you draw a conclusion (providing you are able to do this instead being verbally aggressive towards others).
sparkie624
sparkie624 2
Are you kidding.. Yes it exploded! Weather it was the batteries or another part of it makes no difference... Has the same effect: Watch some videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS8LsPv1_uM

https://youtu.be/SemkHes9PSw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw_2rxSzA5c (watch about 1:15 time stamp

After watching this, is this something we want on A/C.
liko2k
Jakub Bialek 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80v2JicX9Dw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVf4GW9jp-8

So what is your point? Are you some kind of anti vaper freedom fighter? Those things happen to ALL lithium batteries!
23allkimm
Randall Kimm 1
I have to support sparkie624. There is always going to be someone who thinks that they can slip back to the lav for a puff. In a pressurized cabin that crap impairs the oxygen uptake in the blood reducing the capacity to make rational decisions in an emergency. I don't want to be beside the dolt who can't get the emergency exit open because they are physiologically impaired. There is no excuse to have this crap on your person in a pressurized aircraft. Whether it's the e-smoke or alcohol it will impair people and get others killed in emergencies.
jcsjcs
jcsjcs 4
If these devices explode it is because the manufacturers use crappy batteries without consideration for the risk this poses. If the same care were put into manufacturing these devices as is put into manufacturing smart phones and laptops, we wouldn't have this problem.
Make the manufacturers liable and this will stop rather quickly.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
I find that most people don't care, because all they want to do is to satisfy their own habit... That is why they disable Fire Detectors in Lavatories. Most are stupid!
liko2k
Jakub Bialek 1
Of course. Smoking, vaping, drugging is prohibited on board of plane. But that doesn't mean that lines have to ban carrying those in a hand luggage. It is a battery problem. Not e-cig, not laptop, not smartphone.
23allkimm
Randall Kimm 2
I remember a fire on an Air Canada DC-9 that forced the crew to make an emergency landing at the Greater Cincinnati Airport on a DAL-YYZ flight because of a fire that broke out in the aft lav. The pilots successfully landed with the whole cabin full of smoke. However, there was a sudden "flashover" from the thick black smoke that ignited. Firefighters estimated the temp at the top of the cabin was 1,500C. It simply sucked all the available oxygen into the conflagration. I believe 34 people were killed because some idiot needed a cigarette and went to the lav. That accident brought tough new ant-smoking legislation in Canada and the United States. I caught a fool lighting-up in the lav on a LUF flight from FRA-YYZ and we were only Mid-Atlantic by that point. I notified a flight attendant and identified who the fool was. The First Officer came back and arrested the smoker. The idiot was handed over to the RCMP after we landed in YYZ. My question is where would that 747-400 have gone if a fire had started? As passenger's or pilots alike we must report this deadly behaviour immediately. The current laws dealing with smoking illegally in flight should be treated as a felony. The current punishment is just a slap on the wrist. I would propose more serious fines and punishment,ie; $100,000, a year in prison and mandatory listing on the International NO FLY LIST. I agree with all the comments that Mike Mohle and sparkie624 have made. You can find excellent references to the Cincinnati fire on GOOGLE or the aviation accident investigation series MAYDAY.
jcsjcs
jcsjcs 2
I'm wondering why planes didn't come crashing down when smoking was still allowed on airplanes. Probably the idiots didn't have to discard of the cigarette but in the trash container in the lavatory...
That being said, I'm really glad smoking is no longer allowed. But mostly because it stank as hell.
23allkimm
Randall Kimm 1
This is an excellent point. I remember on a couple of long-hauls, 11-14 hours you would be seated next to some beer guzzling chain smoking slob. If the flight was full you might just as well burn your clothing when you land...then take a 3 hour shower just to get the stench off your body. Now with no smoking it's a bit better. On a recent short haul YEG-YVR I had to sit next to "cowboy Bob". He kept passing out on my shoulder until I could get a kind flight attendant to get me into another seat. Drunk's are a safety hazard too, because their reaction times in an in flight emergency can impede the ability of other passengers who are trying to evacuate a plane in a life and death situation. They shouldn't be allowed to board if their is the slightest possibility of intoxication. You know what the first thing these idiots are going to do when a beverage service begins.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
I remember working in that Error of aviation. Cabin Pressurization was problem number one. Once they stopped smoking on aircraft Pressurization went to about the most reliable system on the aircraft. I remember an experiment in A&P School We took a 55 gallon barrel of Varasol and dropped an outflow valve into it. Until weighed about 20 pounds. Before you heard it hit bottom, you cold not see the bottom. I would hate to see the lungs of some of these people. Cabin Air Return filters were bad as well. I would never ever change one without wearing Rubber Gloves.
sparkie624
sparkie624 2
Very true and was well documented. A very sad event.
sgdykstra
sgdykstra 1
Didn't the MAYDAY
sgdykstra
sgdykstra 1
Opps, accidentally hit the post button, lol.

I was going to say - didn't the MAYDAY documentary state that the NTSB never actually determined the cause of the fire? Circuit breakers tripped in the cockpit early in the flight and the voice recorder captured arcing sounds. It very well could have been electrical according to that information. The show did speculate that a cigarette may have been the cause but was that ever ruled the official cause?

Regardless, I don't disagree with you about the dangers of smoking on aircraft. That CANNOT be allowed to happen. Use a nicotine patch or something if you can't get by without it.

As far as batteries go, the Note7 wasn't the first time something like that happened. Dell had a similar problem with some of their laptop batteries around 2010. Even the 787 had problems with lithium chemistry batteries according to Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_787_Dreamliner#Battery_problems)
As I understand it, Lithium chemistry batteries don't just spontaneously ignite - it usually happens during charging if the voltage isn't carefully controlled. If something like this happens during a flight, is there somewhere to dispose of an affected device safely? Maybe commercial flights need some kind of "OH S***" box to drop a burning phone/laptop/whatever into in the unlikely event it starts to meltdown.
23allkimm
Randall Kimm 1
The NTSB never came to a decision on that accident. CASB (Canadian Aviation Safety Board) felt the most likely cause was a cigarette in the lav. I have never known of a lav to self combust. I am not arguing your point all I'm saying is that the Canadian's came to a slightly different conclusion. The other tragedy was that the FAA and TRANSPORT CANADA blamed the AC Captain for recovering a DC-9 in zero visibility from the cockpit. The Unions in the United States and Canada gave this crew an award for accomplishing what they did in the appalling conditions they were confronted with. It's the typical BS you could somehow expect from the FAA and TC. I'm glad the pro's on both sides of the boarder brought the real clarity to that lousy decision by the bureaucrats.
sgdykstra
sgdykstra 1
Agreed. A classic case of government bureaucrats sitting in comfortable leather chairs after a horrible accident and with the benefit of hindsight passing judgement*. The captain did the best he could in an impossible situation. Heartbreaking that despite that heroic landing, half the passengers died in the ensuing inferno.
(*A footnote to deceased author Vince Flynn for the "comfortable leather chair" line)
23allkimm
Randall Kimm 2
The investigators from the NTSB & CASB could find no evidence that a fire began in the wiring harness in the tail cone. If a fire did break-out here the pilots would have lost control of the screw-jack which controls the elevator. From all the evidence collected it's most likely a passenger failed to extinguish their cigarette properly, then tossed the still burning butt into the waste receptacle in the law's waste bin. That's the most logical explanation for this fire. Nonetheless, the pencil pushers on both sides of the boarder thought it best to blame the pilots. Remember,they recovered this aircraft in horrific conditions.







23allkimm
Randall Kimm 1
This is an additional bit of information about that Air Canada DC-9. A few years prior to this accident the tail cone on the aircraft failed and separated from the aircraft as it was climbing out of Logan enroute to Toronto. The AC maintenance engineer's repaired the tail cone in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications. This problem was looked at and the investigation found this problem contributed to the fire.
It seems as if this aircraft was jinxed.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
The CB was from the Lavatory Pump. Crew reset it 3 times. The final result showed and proved that it was the lav pump wiring at the pump itself. The fire started in the AFT LAV. No one was trained or prepared to put it out.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
Oops.. Sorry posted in the wrong area.. Apolologies!
23allkimm
Randall Kimm 1
Please finish your statement it may have been interrupted, thanks. Randall
23allkimm
Randall Kimm 1
Hi James, clearly you have your head together and your flight priorities are organized around flight safety. I only wish more people flying commercial today had your sense of clarity and thoughtfulness. THUMBS UP!

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