Despite a raft of new restrictions , portable power banks are still causing havoc in the air. Just last week, an EasyJet flight from Egypt to England was landed prematurely in Rome after it emerged a passenger was charging a phone in their checked luggage. How long will it be before portable power banks are banned entirely from planes?

Mid-air problems with power banks are becoming increasingly common. The FAA keeps a running list of power bank incidents that involve “smoke, fire or extreme heat” on flights either from or to the U.S. At the time of writing, there had been 29 incidents this year alone. Last year there were 97 incidents, an increase of 94% on the year before.

Cabin crew are now well prepared for incidents with overheating power banks. As with the incident on an Air Canada flight on 15 April, staff are trained to place smoking devices into thermal containment bags to prevent fire spreading.

But it’s not always possible to contain the damage. In March, a plane departing from Tokyo to New York was evacuated after a portable battery charger caught fire while the plane was taxiing. Nobody was injured, but two seats were burned and the flight was cancelled.

In January 2025, an Air Busan flight bound for Hong Kong also caught fire on the ground, when a battery stored in the overhead compartment short-circuited. The plane was so badly burned that it created large holes in the fuselage and the plane was left beyond repair. Twenty passengers were injured in the incident, although it obviously could have been much worse if the plane was in the air when the fire took hold.

The proliferation of problems with portable power banks has forced aviation authorities to act in recent months.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) introduced new specifications in March this year which saw power banks limited to two per person and a ban on recharging them from in-seat power outlets during flights. The regulations are now binding on all 193 member countries.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) basically translates the ICAO regulations into operational guidance for airlines. It recommends airlines encourage passengers to carry power banks only when they’re at less than 25% charge.

Almost all airlines now prohibit the carrying of power banks in checked luggage and power capacities are limited. Devices above 160Wh are banned entirely, with devices in the 100-160Wh range requiring prior approval from the airline.

Some have gone even further. Emirates banned the use of power banks aboard it flights from October last year and only allows passengers to carry one sub-100Wh device in their hand luggage; Quantas & Virgin Australia have also banned their use and insist passengers place power banks in accessible seat pockets, not overhead lockers; Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines are among other airlines to implement bans on their use.

Japan, meanwhile, placed a nationwide ban on the use of portable chargers on domestic flights last month. Only devices bearing the China Compulsory Certification are permitted on flights within or departing from mainland China.

Standards? What Standards?

China’s situation highlights one of the biggest problems with power banks: the absence of any global standards for the safety of such devices.

In the U.S., the UL 2056 test is the closest thing there is to a defined standard. UL 2056 certification guards against risks such as overcharging, short circuits and thermal runaway, and tests will typically involve dropping, crushing and overloading devices to ensure they don’t malfunction under stress.

However, this standard is voluntary: there is no federal law saying power banks must meet the certification. And while retailers such as Amazon may insist upon such certification before allowing power banks to be sold on their platforms, that doesn’t prevent a flood of non-compliant devices being sold elsewhere or being imported from other countries with weaker or no standards.

That creates a massive problem for the aviation industry, because they simply cannot tell whether the devices being brought on to planes by passengers have met any safety standards whatsoever.

Speaking to the BBC following the EasyJet incident last week, a spokesperson for the U.K’s Civil Aviation Authority advised passengers to buy "the best power bank that you can afford in terms of the quality" because “there are a lot of not so good products around.” Still, there’s no guarantee that a more expensive power bank is any better manufactured than one costing half the price.

How long will it be before aviation authorities decide that the only way to safeguard passenger safety is to ban power banks from flights altogether?