FAA Data Offers Rare View of Battery-Related Incidents
Key takeaways from 15 years of data on battery-related incidents on planes
As high energy density battery-powered products proliferate across all aspects of modern life — from essential communication devices to home electronics, recreation, and transportation — it is expected that thermal runaway incidents will also occur. Although energy technologies are continuously improving, with well-manufactured and tested lithium-ion batteries being overwhelmingly safe, the reality is that many environmental and user variables can still result in safety issues.
For both consumers and product companies, greater availability of data could lead to a better understanding of whether a battery-related incident is isolated or indicative of a serious pattern, but there is little regulation on how thermal runaways are reported, tracked, or shared publicly, and it is likely that many are never reported or studied.
