A power bank being dropped into an AvSax fire mitigation bag
A pilot with an AvSax fire mitigation bag which won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its innovation
A power bank erupted in flames just minutes after a passenger got off a plane.
The passenger was walking up an air bridge from the plane into the terminal building when the rucksack suddenly burst into flames at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in China on Sunday, October 20.
Video shows flames leaping from the rucksack after it was thrown to the ground, filling the corridor with thick, toxic smoke.
No-one was hurt in the drama but it could have had far worse consequences if the battery had caught fire while the plane was flying at 35,000ft or coming into land.
This is why many airline companies are now equipped with AvSax lithium battery thermal fire mitigation bags and there are now on board almost 17,000 aircraft globally and have been deployed in action dozens of times.
AvSax were devised by Environmental Defence Systems Ltd based in Yorkshire, England, and its special projects manager Jessica Bailey said: “The video is quite frightening and shows just how quickly lithium battery fires can take hold and are then notoriously difficult to put out.
“This is why they need to go into an AvSax which are made from military grade material and specially designed to continually cool the overheating device down.”
Power banks are the biggest cause of lithium battery fires on aircraft, responsible for more than 200 in the USA alone since 2006, according to figures from the Federal Aviation Administration which is responsible for air safety there.
AvSax are the most widely deployed thermal fire containment bags in the airline industry and are used by major airline companies.
It won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its innovation, the highest accolade any business can get.
For more on AvSax go to https://avsax.com/
