Japan’s transport ministry will limit the number of power banks allowed on flights and effectively ban their onboard use starting in mid-April, a move prompted by a recent series of alarming incidents.
Just use your regular charger, there are typically outlets under the seat in front of you on B737/A320 and larger. Even many regional jets have them these days. I never plug into a random USB port.
If you’re that worried about it (and don’t have at least a passthrough charging cable), you can just turn your devices off and bring a book. I don’t know why you’d be worried about it killing your devices though, if a plane’s electrical system has failed so badly it’s going to fry things on the USB bus then you’ve got much bigger problems.
Damaged ports with shorted pins, voltage fluctuations, etc.
The passenger electrical system is as isolated from the the rest of the plane as possible, but if the entire thing fails, sure then yeah you’re fucked and have bigger problems
A USB transceiver is required to withstand a continuous short circuit of D+ and/or D- to VBUS, GND, other data line, or the cable shield at the connector, for a minimum of 24 hours without degradation
Shorts aren’t really a concern with decent hardware, but as far as I can tell that’s the problem with the power banks that are failing - they’re not decent hardware, so minor damage attached to a very energetic bag o’ chemistry results in (very occasional) fiery disaster.
You probably shouldn’t trust those to actually work. Or even to be safe enough to not kill whatever you plug into them.
Yeah, aircrafts are famous for being unsafe and allowing high voltage connectors exposed to passangers.
Also you shouldn’t plug your phone into random USB ports, although i guess carrying a charge pass through adapter is an option.
Just use your regular charger, there are typically outlets under the seat in front of you on B737/A320 and larger. Even many regional jets have them these days. I never plug into a random USB port.
If you’re that worried about it (and don’t have at least a passthrough charging cable), you can just turn your devices off and bring a book. I don’t know why you’d be worried about it killing your devices though, if a plane’s electrical system has failed so badly it’s going to fry things on the USB bus then you’ve got much bigger problems.
Damaged ports with shorted pins, voltage fluctuations, etc.
The passenger electrical system is as isolated from the the rest of the plane as possible, but if the entire thing fails, sure then yeah you’re fucked and have bigger problems
Shorts aren’t really a concern with decent hardware, but as far as I can tell that’s the problem with the power banks that are failing - they’re not decent hardware, so minor damage attached to a very energetic bag o’ chemistry results in (very occasional) fiery disaster.