Here’s another reason why you want to keep batteries and chargers in your carry on bags.
For the past several years, airlines, following FAA regulations, have required that lithium-ion batteries – those that power smartphones, tablets, cameras, laptops and E-cigarettes, among other things – be stored in passengers’ carry on bags instead of check luggage.
The reason for this is that they can catch fire if they’re damaged or if the battery terminals are somehow short-circuited. Although a fire in the cabin is an absolute emergency and oftentimes cause for an emergency landing, a fire in the cargo section, where no one and nothing will see/smell/detect it for a longer amount of time, could wind up being even more potentially deadly.
That being said, there’s another reason you don’t want to keep those batteries (or frankly, regular batteries. Or chargers) in your checked luggage…
