A lithium ion battery in Orlando International Airport caught fire on Friday, the 10th. The battery was inside a passenger’s bag as it was near a security checkpoint.
When the battery began to explode one or more large ‘pop’ sounds were heard, that many considered the sound of gunshots, which caused a mild panic. Others say the sound may have just been that of stanchions falling over. Stanchions are the upright posts use to define orderly lines at check-in and reception desks.
The stanchions fell as people rushed to get away from the noise created. The fast movement of people, caused others to rush away. The panic was reported as mild, but also note that thousands of people were forced to go back through TSA lines and 24 flights were canceled.
Lithium-ion batteries are allowed onboard most domestic and international flights as long as they are generally under 100 watt. However, this threshold varies between airliners and locations. Batteries brought onboard airplanes generally must be kept close-at-hand in the cabin and not placed in check-in baggage. That is so if there is a problem it can be dealt with safely. If a battery has a problem in the luggage compartment of a plane, the incident could quickly spread or more easily cause a chain-reaction to adjacent cells called a thermal runaway event.
An official description of the events was made public by Phil Brown, CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. In his words:
“A passenger entering the checkpoint had a camera in their carry-on when apparently, the lithium ion battery for the camera caught fire and the bag began to smoke. Realizing this, the passenger of course immediately dropped the bag and those around them moved away from it. Emergency services arrived quickly and moved the bag farther away from passengers queued for security. Unfortunately, with all of the events occurring around the world some witnesses panicked and self-evacuated the area dropping their carry-on luggage and knocking over the stanchions queueing the checkpoint. Others hearing the luggage being dropped, stanchions falling, and rapid movement mistook the sounds as gunfire and within seconds a spontaneous evacuation of the main terminal occurred. “
