On Sunday, July 30, a Sri Lankan Airline A330-200 with 202 passengers aboard was flying from Kochi, India to Colombo, Sri Lanka\u00a0when smoke was detected\u00a0coming from an overhead compartment.<\/p>\n

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The flight attendants, who immediately suspected a lithium-ion battery fire, sprayed the luggage with a fire extinguisher. When that failed to stop the smoke, they dowsed the luggage in water and that did the trick. According to an airline statement. “The situation was successfully contained and the bag ceased to emit smoke. Upon investigation, the crew found a lithium battery pack and two mobile phones in the bag.”<\/p>\n

The plane and its passengers landed safely after the short, but eventful, a 70-minute flight. An investigation is ongoing. If anything, this incident shows the importance of well-trained and quick-thinking flight attendants. But realistically, flight attendants are the last line of defense in a chain that should go all the way back up to the battery and device manufacturers.<\/p>\n

The incident summons memories of thousands of flights last September and October, where boarding announcements included demands for passengers to surrender any Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones in their possession.<\/p>\n

According to report\u00a0that began with the phrase \u201cSmartphones going up in flames,\u201d Samsung admitted to 35 incidents of phones catching fire, and started a recall of more than 2 million phones.\u00a0It\u2019s worth noting that this isn\u2019t just a Samsung problem. Apple iPhones have been\u00a0reported\u00a0to catch fire as well. And perhaps concerns should extend from the sky to the roadway, as Tesla vehicles use thousands of lithium-ion battery cells, which have reportedly caught fire in accidents in\u00a0Indiana\u00a0and the\u00a0Netherlands.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s hard to recall the panic around the Note 7 recall, try recalling the \u201choverboard\u201d ban of Christmas 2015. A fad now largely in the rear-view mirror, hoverboards are self-balancing two-wheel scooters built on gyroscopic technology. They use an electric motor to propel the user down the street.\u00a0More than 60 airlines\u00a0banned hoverboards because of concerns about\u2014you guessed it\u2014their lithium-ion battery packs. The batteries were large, in order to power the scooter. And like any good fad, dozens of knock-off manufacturers jumped in, potentially bypassing safeguards found in more expensive products like smartphones and tablets.<\/p>\n

Even less remembered is the notebook battery crisis of 2006, when some\u00a09.6 million batteries\u00a0made by Sony and used in notebook computers made by Dell, Apple, Toshiba and others were recalled.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0concerns with lithium-ion batteries, pervasive as the technology is, go back much further. The technology was originally developed in the 1970\u2019s, as it permitted much more power density than nickel cadmium or lead-acid batteries. But with that power came volatility.<\/p>\n