Devices powered by lithium-ion batteries are overheating more often during airline flights and passengers often put them in checked bags that go into the cargo hold, where a fire might not be detected as quickly.
Overheating incidents rose 28% from 2019 to 2023, although such events remain relatively rare, UL Standards said in a report released Monday .
E-cigarettes overheated more often than any other device, based on reports from 35 airlines, according to the report.
In 60% of the cases, the overheating - called thermal runaway - happened near the seat of the passenger who brought the device on board.
In July, a smoking laptop in a passenger's bag led to the evacuation of a plane awaiting takeoff at San Francisco International Airport. Last year, a flight from Dallas to Orlando, Florida, made an emergency landing in Jacksonville, Florida, after a battery caught fire in an overhead bin .
