E-cigarettes are a potential fire hazard, having caused smoke or fire on an airplane or in an airport on 30 occasions in the last three years, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used for e-cigarettes, laptops, phones, and other electronic devices have caused numerous instances of fire, smoke, and sparks either in airports or on planes in the last three years, according to data compiled by the FAA and analysed by The Washington Post.
"We think that's a pretty significant threat," Mark Millam, former safety chief at Northwest Airlines and currently the Flight Safety Foundation's vice president of technical programs, told the newspaper. "It's gone from one to multiple devices that most passengers are carrying on. You don't know where all these things are coming from and what's in them and how legitimate they are."
The FAA does prohibit hazardous devices, but it does not specifically bar e-cigarettes or specific laptops from flights — though it did ban the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in October 2016 for being fire-prone.
"The hazardous materials regulations prohibit passengers from bringing on board 'batteries and battery-powered devices which are likely to create sparks or generate a dangerous evolution of heat, unless packaged in a manner which precludes such an occurrence,'" the FAA said in a statement to the Post.
"It's up to the individual airlines to determine whether a device is likely to 'create sparks or generate a dangerous evolution of heat,' and to transmit that information to their passengers," the agency added. "Because of the wide variety of battery issues that can occur, it is important that airlines have the flexibility to assess and address the risks involved in each individual situation."
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