Details about carrying transportable batteries onboard airplanes is displayed on the departure corridor of Incheon Worldwide Airport March 12, 2025. Newsis
Korea is tightening restrictions on battery-heated devices on airplanes, successfully banning most cordless hair instruments and related gadgets from each carry-on and checked baggage amid mounting fears over in-flight lithium-ion battery fires.
The problem drew contemporary consideration after Australian traveler Ellie Tran was pressured to desert a wi-fi hair straightener price round 500,000 gained ($399) at Incheon Worldwide Airport earlier than boarding a flight dwelling to Sydney.
Tran advised British outlet Day by day Mail that she had checked in the identical mannequin a number of occasions with out incident and had even flown into Korea with it, solely to be advised on departure that it needed to be discarded. The system contained a built-in lithium-ion battery that can not be eliminated, which safety officers flagged as a hearth threat.
Korean airways now prohibit cordless straighteners, curling irons, transportable irons and rechargeable hand heaters with non-removable batteries in each cabin and checked baggage on all routes.
The crackdown isn’t restricted to hair instruments. Safety officers at Incheon and different main Korean air hubs are more and more flagging a wider vary of battery-powered gadgets that generate warmth or high-intensity gentle.
The one exceptions are gadgets with batteries that may be bodily eliminated or utterly disconnected with a flight-ready or airplane mode change that cuts energy to the heating component.
A discover warning passengers towards inserting transportable batteries in overhead bins is displayed at Air Busan’s home check-in counter at Gimpo Worldwide Airport in Seoul, Feb. 19, 2025. Newsis
These guidelines mirror Worldwide Civil Aviation Group (ICAO) harmful items steerage, which urges strict management of lively lithium-powered gadgets as a result of cargo fireplace suppression methods wrestle to include battery fires.
Authorities say the clampdown follows a string of incidents involving battery fires on or close to Korean plane.
In January final yr, a conveyable battery explosion on an Air Busan flight at Gimhae Worldwide Airport severely broken the plane, and separate instances of smoking or burning energy banks have been lately reported on flights to and from Incheon. The episodes bolstered regulators’ view that any system able to self-heating in an enclosed house can quickly grow to be life-threatening if thermal runaway spreads to close by objects.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has since ordered airways to deal with “non-removable battery heating gadgets” as excessive threat, whereas tightening guidelines on the place and the way different lithium batteries are carried.
Following a collection of incidents since March 2025, passengers are more and more suggested to maintain energy banks and e-cigarettes in designated pouches and on their particular person, moderately than in overhead bins, to make sure quick response in case of a fireplace. The charging of transportable energy banks throughout flights can also be strictly restricted.
Incheon airport steerage additionally stresses that lithium batteries over 160 watt-hours are barred, and even smaller spares are allowed solely within the cabin beneath airline-specific limits.
An Asiana Airways worker distributes “No Battery” tags to passengers on the airline’s check-in counter at Terminal 2 of Incheon Worldwide Airport, Wednesday. Yonhap
The crackdown aligns Korea with Japan, the place have regulators equally banned cordless hair instruments with non-removable batteries from each the cabin and baggage maintain. America and European nations additionally prohibit such objects to carry-on baggage with obligatory security covers and anti-activation locks.
Vacationers don’t essentially need to throw away their costly devices.
Since 2017, Incheon airport operates a “storage and courier” desk close to safety the place passengers can retailer objects till a future journey or ship them to a Korean handle as an alternative of throwing them away, although battery merchandise can’t be despatched by air overseas.
