Headphone batteries explode on flight to Australia | Hacker News Reader

Headphone batteries explode on flight to Australia

japantimes.co.jp

16 pointsgiis6 comments

Flight attendants rushed to help and poured a bucket of water on the headphones, but the battery and its cover had both melted and stuck to the floor.

http://spectrumfx.net/blog/lithium-battery-fires-why-not-wat...

Probably not a good idea to pour water on an electrical / lithium fire. I expected airplane personnel are now routinely trained to deal with battery fires.

Lithium fire != Lithium-Ion fire

If anything, it soaks the surrounding material making it much harder for the fire to spread.

Ideally you'd put it in a bucket of water to contain the blobs of liquid hot magma and to generally cool the thing. But who has a bucket of water ready and is willing to handle a flaming device?

"the FAA instructs flight attendants to use water or soda pop. Water-based products are most readily available and are appropriate since Li-ion contains very little lithium metal that reacts with water. Water also cools the adjacent area and prevents the fire from spreading. Research laboratories and factories also use water to extinguish Li-ion battery fires. "

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/safety_concerns_w...

From the CNN article [1] it says that the ATSB spokesman has declined to mention which brand of headphones caused the fire. I wonder why that isn't being publicized. Beijing to Melbourne - could it be a KIRF or is it a major brand?

"However, a spokesman wouldn't reveal what type of batteries or headphones were involved. He said the incident had occurred on February 19."

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/14/asia/australia-headphone-explo...

> In addition, overcharging the packs — or charging them too fast — can also lead to overheating and a short circuit that can cause a fire.

Oh great. Now in addition to users who think they need to disconnect their laptop when it hits 100% charge, we'll have users who think they need to let it charge 10%, discharge a little, charge 10%, etc. It's almost like battery manufacturers want people to wear out their batteries faster with this FUD... oh wait.

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