An alarming increase in the number of smoke and fire incidents on airlines from passengers’ malfunctioning lithium-ion batteries is causing concern among safety and aviation experts. Because all sorts of gadgets are powered with these batteries, they are a cause of increasing risk in aviation while all other aviation risks are decreasing over time.

According to the FAA, the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries present in the luggage pose a fire threat in cargo areas.  After all that happened in recent years with Samsung Note 7, Hoverboards and various devices (chargers, laptops, music players,  etc.) there is consensus on the root cause:  Lithium-ion batteries.  Once ignited, these battery fires are extremely difficult to extinguish and require specific firefighting procedures.

At the recommendation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a host of airlines—including American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta, and Hawaiian Airlines—have announced that high-tech luggage and luggage tags with embedded batteries won’t be allowed on flights due to safety concerns.  It is expected that all major carriers will adopt this policy to reduce risk of incidents.

However, Dynotag Web/Location Enabled Smart Tags are not affected from this ban, as they do not contain any batteries or electronics.   All dynotags keep their information and programming logic in the Dynotag Cloud Service (DCS) – making the physical tags maintenance-free.

Source: JetSetter, Consumer Reports, BatteryUniversity, ICC Compliance Center