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Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

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Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#51
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> allegiant still wanted to charge us for water. I'd be surprised if they didn't have to charge for water with flights from Memphis to Vegas for $38[0] and Cincinnati to Fort Myers for $44[1]. [0] https://www.allegiantair.com/low-cost-las-vegas-flights [1] https://www.allegiantair.com/deals

The behavior of ultra low cost airlines is often inexcusable, but understandable, and why I don't fly them. Their employees are usually not allowed to make "good reason" exceptions because exceptions are nebulous and passengers may argue why the next time isn't a "good reason" and airlines want that money. It's like a flying cruise ship; the fare gets you a chair and nothing else because the everything else is where…

I watched someone pretend to fall asleep after getting their bottle of water. Then pretended to be asleep until they landed. They got off the plan with a free bottle of water.

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#52
post #12

If a huge fire breaks out on a plain mid flight, you realistically have no chance of survival right? So instead of trying to survive only to get burned to death you should inhale as much fumes as possible to pass out and die quickly before you are burned?

Not at all. Fires are survivable, and the vast majority of aviation fires have ended without total airframe loss.

Remember: everybody in a small captive space is a firefighter. And the chief firefighters are the people who we call "flight attendants". Their man job is to prevent the scenario you describe; they are nice enough to serve us drinks when that job is not required of them.

Flight attendants and air traffic controllers have saved many, many lives in the past century and are barely recognized for it.

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#53
Here's a question this group might know the answer to: are lithium battery and lithium-ion battery being used interchangeably by airlines? When they say "lithium" do I need to read that to also mean li-ion as well? Am I the dummy who thinks they mean two separate things and everyone else knows they mean the same thing?

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#54

Here's a question this group might know the answer to: are lithium battery and lithium-ion battery being used interchangeably by airlines? When they say "lithium" do I need to read that to also mean li-ion as well? Am I the dummy who thinks they mean two separate things and everyone else knows they mean the same thing?

They're the same thing. At this point no batteries are made purely from lithium (I remember seeing some research on that front).

It's all lithium ion, lithium polymer, etc. In casual settings the terms get used interchangeably.

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#55

Here's a question this group might know the answer to: are lithium battery and lithium-ion battery being used interchangeably by airlines? When they say "lithium" do I need to read that to also mean li-ion as well? Am I the dummy who thinks they mean two separate things and everyone else knows they mean the same thing?

Yes, they're basically used interchangeable even though it's not 100% accurate. A LiIon cell versus a LiPoly spicy pillow may be different, but from this perspective they're the same.

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#56
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many emergencies pilots will conduct an "emergency descent" down to 10000 as part of the checklist (or memory item). It is a dive that you would never otherwise experience in a commercial jet.

I was on a flight where one of the pilots had a heart attack and got to experience weightlessness or close to it for a few seconds. Cool to think about what that felt like now but in moment.. not so much. Anyway, the pilot survived and the delay was surprisingly short given the circumstances.

“This is your backup pilot speaking. Our captain has gone into cardiac arrest, but we will dive to 10,000 feet and give him a bit of the old spicy bra and have him right back up and you back on schedule in no time!”

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#57

The article made it click for me why they seem to care so much about you damaging your electronics lost in the seats. Is there something about air travel that makes these batteries go or is it just a relatively uncommon thing that creates a common problem given the number of flights?

Moving the seat whilst something is stuck can cause it to puncture the battery - bad!

Also, a seat that can’t get out of recline can ground the whole airliner, too.

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#58
post #24

My house is old enough to have (currently redundant) fireplaces. Reading stories like this, I wonder if it would be worth converting them into flameproof storage for battery powered devices.

You can buy “burn cabinets” designed for this but I wonder if a fire safe would work.

If it can keep fire out, can it keep fire in?

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#59
post #12

If a huge fire breaks out on a plain mid flight, you realistically have no chance of survival right? So instead of trying to survive only to get burned to death you should inhale as much fumes as possible to pass out and die quickly before you are burned?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_Airlines_Flight_243 Ended with one fatality.

Stay with the plane.

Re: Rising number of lithium battery incidents on airplanes worry crew

#60

Here's a question this group might know the answer to: are lithium battery and lithium-ion battery being used interchangeably by airlines? When they say "lithium" do I need to read that to also mean li-ion as well? Am I the dummy who thinks they mean two separate things and everyone else knows they mean the same thing?

Ideally we'd have smarter policies, I think? I can bring on 2x+ RC hobbyist 100WHr lipo packs that scares even me, a lot.

Amazing tech, super cheap. 4.5Ah 22.6V pack, converts down to usb-c ranges with absurd efficiency, 24v->120vac inverters are awesome. Packs are so cheap. High power ones can fully discharge in under a minute, which is 6.5kW output, absurd. But my heavens these things are just terrifying. I occasionally use two for a short-range electric skateboard & am shocked nothing has yet exploded or caught on fire. They're more durable than I expect but there is so much energy here so unprotected. And I as someone who watches the internal resistance change over time- I know for real these things age, a lot over time, and eventually some might well become quite unhappy monsters.

But if I had lifepo4 packs, the only thing catching on fire would be whatever the pack was powering. Lifepo4 is amazing. Drive nails into it, set it on fire, whatever. Great cycle count too.

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