Overview

• Flight 1844 from Baltimore to Tampa made an abrupt turn an hour after takeoff when a power bank began to smoke, marking the inaugural enforcement of Southwest’s new safety rule.
• Flight attendants swiftly placed the overheating charger in a fire-resistant containment bag and the captain rerouted the Boeing 737 with no injuries reported.
• The airline’s “keep in sight” policy mandates that portable chargers remain visible during use to enable prompt detection of any malfunction.
• Industry concerns date back to a January fire on an Air Busan plane in Seoul blamed on a power bank in an overhead bin and an FAA finding of about three lithium-ion battery incidents every two weeks last year.
• Southwest is the first U.S. carrier to adopt this visible-charger requirement, following similar measures already in place at several international airlines.