Camera Battery Explodes at Airport = More Restrictions?

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PKR

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Could be bad news for those who pack digital cameras onto aircraft?
I wonder what brand of camera and if the battery was approved by the camera maker?

"Camera Battery Explodes at Airport, Sparking Panic"

From Michael Zhang at PetaPixel

"Orlando International Airport received a scare yesterday when some travelers heard what appeared to be a loud gunshot. After the commotion had settled down, it turns out that one person’s lithium ion camera battery had exploded.

Local ABC news station WVTV9 reports that after the loud bang was heard, law enforcement quickly responded and determined that it wasn’t a shot fired. The Orlando Police Department soon posted a Tweet to reassure those at the airport:

After further investigation, both the police and the airport announced that a battery in a camera had exploded in a bag after overheating, and that the bag was smoldering when discovered:

Many travelers who were startled by the commotion had already evacuated the terminals and needed to be re-screened at the security checkpoint, causing extremely long lines and delays.

This latest incident is bad news for photographers who are already frustrated with airport security in the US tightening its policies regarding cameras and other large electronics.

Security checkpoints began requiring a separate screening for cameras back in July, and the US is now urging airlines to ban cameras in checked bags due to fears of camera batteries exploding and causing catastrophic fires.

A battery explosion like this at the nation’s 13th busiest airport shows that the concerns may be justified.


Image credits: Header illustration based on images by Michael Gray, flaticon/freepik, and Designmodo


https://petapixel.com/2017/11/11/camera-battery-explodes-airport-sparking-panic/
 
My brother, an FAA inspector, reports that several Li ion battery episodes, sometimes with fires, occur at airports each month. They are usually associated with shorting out of the terminals by contact with metal items. Some incidents are associated with electronic cigarettes, where the batteries have been rigged by users for more power output. Also, some manufacturing defects are the problem.

The FAA restricts on flight batteries to max power of 300 Wh output, and max of two batteries (one spare 300, or two 160Wh batteries per passenger. All must be in carry on luggage only - no checked luggage. All this applies to cameras and other devices such as battery-powered wheel chairs.

FAA regs regarding Li batterys on flight are found at the FAA.com website.

Regulations are always changing, depending on the incidence/frequency of problems.

The worst outcome - fire or explosion due to excessive Li Ion batteries on board - is a likely reason that the Malaysian airliner MH370 went down. An empty 787 jetliner that incorporated many Li batteries in its design caught fire at Logan airport in 2011. Took firefighters 40 min to extinguish it. Lithium fires are not easy to extinguish.
 
Info. from faa.gov web site:

https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/hazmat_safety/more_info/?hazmat=7

My wife and I spent a few weeks in October in Europe, starting in Prague Czech Republic and I never had my camera bag examined throughout our trip. It did get scanned, carry on, here in Minneapolis and finally in Paris on our return trip home. The bag was never opened or examined by anyone. I had one of my Canon digital 5D cameras with a lithium ion battery in the camera plus two spares. Even when coming home from Paris no one looked into my bag when going through security at the airport. Also had a Lecia M4 plus several rolls of tri-x film in the bag plus some other stuff.

At any rate, thought I’d share my experiences.
 
I bought this last year when I had a few flights and needed to have several extra batteries for my Nikon DSLRs:

https://www.amazon.com/Lightdow-Lithium-Battery-Organizer-Storage/dp/B071FK1QNV/

Airport guidelines mentioned that unprotected loose batteries are not allowed. This fixes that problem. I assume with episodes like this that airport security may crack down on this harder. Those traveling with spare batteries should probably get a battery case to prevent issues.

Last time I traveled though it was for pleasure so I didn't have any batteries - just lots of film ;).
 
PKR said:
This latest incident is bad news for photographers who are already frustrated with airport security in the US tightening its policies regarding cameras and other large electronics.

Security checkpoints began requiring a separate screening for cameras back in July
Click to expand...

Just flew to London from LAX (Los Angeles), and I did not notice any change in security measures/screening re. cameras. They even obliged to hand check my film which was very nice of them.
 
Won't affect me either way. Flying has turned into such an unpleasant, fear driven ordeal that if I can't get where I want to go by bike, Uber, bus or train, then I don't need to go there. I recently traveled thousands of miles on two trips across the US by train and never once was even asked to show my I.D., much less subjected to intrusive luggage checks. Wonderful experience in this age of paranoia and suspicion.

Anyway, everyone should know that lithium batteries can be a fire hazard and possibly explode in certain situations.
 
My brother-in-law coming back from a holiday trip to China found out when collecting his bag it had been opened and a spare videocamera battery was removed from it.
So at some places they really check those xray images!
Bye the way, he did not know he had to carry batteries in his hand luggage ��
 
ellisson said:
The FAA restricts on flight batteries to max power of 300 Wh output, and max of two batteries (one spare 300, or two 160Wh batteries per passenger. All must be in carry on luggage only - no checked luggage. All this applies to cameras and other devices such as battery-powered wheel chairs.
Click to expand...

This is what I found on a recent flight with camera gear. All depended on the Wh rating of the batteries. No problem with my GoPro batteries, but just to be safe, used Alkaline AA in my Canon 6D w/battery grip so no Lithium Ions with that.

Best,
-Tim
 
Years ago I vaguely remember reading that cheap batteries with only 2 contacts instead of 3 lacked the internal thermostat to switch off in case of over heating.

Just my2d worth.

Regards, David
 
Did they ever announce what kind of a camera/battery this was, as in brand/model and exact battery type?
 
the larger the battery, the bigger the danger.

the batteries in a well known digital medium format camera decided to explode
in a big way while my friend was shooting!

His hand was badly hurt and burned.
A few seconds either way, he could have lost his eyesight or even his life.
 
CameraQuest said:
the larger the battery, the bigger the danger.

the batteries in a well known digital medium format camera decided to explode
in a big way while my friend was shooting!

His hand was badly hurt and burned.
A few seconds either way, he could have lost his eyesight or even his life.
Click to expand...

Were the batteries from the camera manufacturer or gray market? Nikon had to add a bit of code to a recent firmware upgrade that prevents the use of non Nikon brand batteries. Their batteries contain an ID in the battery chip. I'm not saying this hasn't been hacked. It usually doesn't take long.

Most batteries contain sensors to prevent over heating. The batteries talk to both chargers and the camera. Aftermarket batteries often spoof this sensor info in their onboard chip. Meaning, no sensor (expensive) but, the chip tells the camera/charger all is well. It's the risk taken with non-approved gray market batteries.

I've found that I have to be careful where I buy my memory and batteries. The forged items look very close to the real stuff.
 
PKR said:
Were the batteries from the camera manufacturer or gray market? Nikon had to add a bit of code to a recent firmware upgrade that prevents the use of non Nikon brand batteries. Their batteries contain an ID in the battery chip. I'm not saying this hasn't been hacked. It usually doesn't take long.

Most batteries contain sensors to prevent over heating. The batteries talk to both chargers and the camera. Aftermarket batteries often spoof this sensor info in their onboard chip. Meaning, no sensor (expensive) but, the chip tells the camera/charger all is well. It's the risk taken with non-approved gray market batteries.
Click to expand...

This guy does not buy anything not OEM.
 
Gotta treat batteries with respect. Overcharging, heat, prolong continuous use at high discharge rate are a few things that can cause problems. There are others.

In the 1960s I worked (mainly as a stock boy) during the sumner at Target. It was T-2 their second store! Back then cartons and other stuff were put into a large trash burner. It was about 4 feet in diameter and about 8 feet or so tall. It was gas fired and had large double doors that would open by pressing on a foot pedal.

Every so often a person, I guess they thought it was a thrill and funny, would throw in an aerosol can and it would pop & bang. Finally it would explode. As I recall, ladies hair spray gave out pretty good noise.

Someone thought why not try a battery. So they threw in one double A alkaline battery. When it exploded, it sounded so loud you could hear it throughout the store. Someone who was near the incernator said the doors opened!

No damage to the burner. But that was it, never again.

At any rate, batteries are great but when something happens it can be a real problem!

And there are differences in quality:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/how-to/a18633/cordless-power-tool-technology/

http://toolguyd.com/replacement-power-tool-battery-packs-question/
 
I don't know a lot about the battery forgeries but, read a lot about memory forgeries, after having purchased some bad memory from a reputable camera dealer. The dealer was likely taken too. During my little investigation of my memory problems, I spoke at length with an applications engineer at SanDisk; my memory of choice. He told me that about 30% of the SanDisk memory on the market was forged. He said, it was a huge problem for SanDisk.

The worst case, and hardest to detect, are memory chips that failed testing that have been secretly run through the packaging process. If my memory is correct, SanDisk is a Toshiba product (it's been a while, so check if interested). What happens is the failed memory is put into large containers scheduled for grinding. Foundry workers come in after their shift and run this bad memory through the laser printing process and then through packaging and get out the door with a lot of bad product. These are factory workers and are hard to catch according to my reading.

The memory ends up in the Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen cell phone / electronics market in China. The memory is bought cheap and exported by middle men brokers who may sell it to salesmen or distributors .. or some bad retailers. It's possible that many buyers won't detect issues with this memory unless, taken to it's full (manufacturers) write speed or capacity.

I was given a list of trusted vendors by SanDisk. I buy only from them and have had no problems in a few years.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4861360/Pictures-world-s-largest-electronics-market.html
 
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