A Power Bank Stored in an Overhead Bin Destroyed an Air Busan Jet in January 2025. Airlines Across Asia Responded by Requiring Passengers Keep Their Power Banks Closer to Their Bodies, Not Farther Away.
On the night of 28 January 2025, an Air Busan Airbus A321 with 176 people aboard was preparing to taxi at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, when a fire broke out in the rear cabin. Everyone evacuated down the slides; seven people came away with minor smoke-inhalation injuries. The aircraft itself did not survive — it was written off as a total hull loss before it ever left the gate.
On 14 March 2025, investigators announced a likely cause: a passenger's power bank, stored in an overhead bin, had suffered internal insulation breakdown and ignited. Within weeks, South Korea's transport ministry and a wave of Asian carriers rewrote their power bank rules. Almost none of them banned power banks. What they banned was distance — specifically, the distance between a power bank and the passenger who owns it.
The New Rule, Everywhere
South Korea's domestic carriers moved first: power banks are now barred from overhead bins entirely and must travel in a seat pocket or under the seat in front of you. Charging one through a seatback USB port is also banned. Passengers are capped at five batteries under 100Wh each, and anything over 160Wh isn't allowed on the plane at all. Japan Airlines and ANA adopted the same overhead-bin ban, requiring power banks to stay "within sight" — meaning on your person or within arm's reach, not stowed above your head where a fire could smolder unnoticed.
Use It, Don't Charge It
Singapore Airlines and Scoot banned in-flight use and charging of power banks starting 1 April 2025. Thai Airways banned in-flight use (though passengers can still carry one) from 15 March. EVA Air and China Airlines banned use and charging from 1 March. Cathay Pacific followed on 7 April. The common thread across nearly every airline that changed its rules: you can still bring your power bank, you just can't let it sit unattended and plugged in — it has to remain in your hands, in your seat pocket, or under your seat, close enough that you'd notice if something went wrong.
A Trend, Not a Fluke
The Air Busan fire wasn't an isolated freak event — it landed in the middle of a rising curve. The FAA logged 89 verified lithium-battery smoke, fire, or extreme-heat incidents on aircraft in 2024, up 16% from the year before, and was already tracking roughly 50 more by early September 2025, about 1.4 a week. The agency's Safety Alert urging airlines to sharpen their passenger warnings predates the Air Busan crash and had nothing to do with it specifically — the industry was already worried about batteries in cabins before a plane in Busan burned to a hull loss because of one. Japan is set to go furthest yet, banning in-flight power bank use nationwide starting April 2026.
The entire reason a power bank exists is so a passenger's phone stays charged and reachable through a long flight. The fix for one catching fire, unwatched, in a bin above someone's head, was to require that passengers keep it closer — in a seat pocket, under a seat, often while they sleep just inches from it.
Filed from public reporting:
- Wikipedia — "Air Busan Flight 391"
- ABC News (Australia) — "Power bank blamed for South Korean plane fire, airlines tighten safety regulations"
- CNN — "Why are a growing number of airlines banning power banks on flights?"
- TTG Asia — "In-flight use of power banks banned as airlines take greater caution"
- Gulf News — "Singapore Airlines and Scoot ban use of power banks on flights"
- Malay Mail — "Airlines crackdown on power banks — new bans and restrictions take flight"
- Japan Today — "Japanese airlines enacting new mobile battery carry-on rules"
- Time Out Asia — "Japan to ban in-flight power bank usage from April 2026"
- Lion Technology — "Lithium Battery Air Incidents Increased by 16% in 2024"
- UL Standards & Engagement — "Lithium-Ion Battery Incidents in Aviation, 2024 Data Review"
