E-cigarettes to be confined to carry-on baggage

Airline passengers should add electronic cigarettes to the list of items that may not be stored in their checked luggage, according to a story by Alan Levin for Bloomberg.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which already bans flammables and explosives in checked baggage, is now warning airlines about the fire risk from electronic cigarettes.

And while the safety alert is voluntary, typically most airlines follow such guidance.

Levin said electronic cigarettes mainly used lithium cells to heat liquid nicotine into a vapor, and the FAA advisory was the latest to point out the dangers of such battery-powered devices.

‘It cited two recent fires started by e-cigarettes, including one in the cargo hold of a plane at Boston’s Logan Airport in August and a Jan. 4 incident where luggage sitting in the baggage area at Los Angeles International Airport burst into flames,’ he said.

The FAA stopped short of banning the items in carry-on luggage, saying that if a fire were to break out in the passenger cabin, it would be spotted and extinguished faster than if it were in the cargo hold.