A plane made an emergency landing due to a power bank in a travel bag.

On May 19th, an easyJet flight carrying 180 passengers from Hurghada, Egypt, to London Luton was forced to make an emergency landing in Rome. The main reason for diverting the aircraft to another destination was that a passenger had alerted the crew about a power bank connected to a mobile phone and charging inside a bag in the hold luggage compartment.

Approximately three hours into the flight, upon receiving this alert, the pilot immediately took action and safely landed the aircraft at Rome's Fiumicino Airport within 20 minutes. Due to this emergency landing, the airline arranged overnight accommodation for the passengers, and they were provided with another flight to Luton the following day around 2:00 PM to reach their destination. A 57-year-old passenger named Paul Casterton, who was on the flight, stated that passengers were greatly frightened when the plane suddenly changed direction and descended, and everyone later breathed a sigh of relief that there was no bomb in the luggage compartment.

As such portable charging devices can cause fires and safety risks due to overheating or short circuits, many airlines have already imposed strict regulations regarding them. According to easyJet's guidelines, power banks with lithium batteries can only be carried in passengers' hand luggage, and placing them in the main hold luggage compartment is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, the capacity of these devices must not exceed 160 Watt-hours (160Wh), and using them to charge other devices onboard the aircraft during the flight is also completely forbidden.

A spokesperson for easyJet stated to the media that the safety of air passengers and crew is their top priority. Last year, an incident was reported where a power bank overheated and caught fire inside an Air China A321 Airbus aircraft, and the crew managed to extinguish the fire immediately. Considering these safety risks, earlier this year, Lufthansa also took steps to prohibit the use of power banks on flights, and British Airways has also banned carrying power banks with a capacity exceeding 100 Watt-hours into the aircraft.