Video of a hoverboard catching fire inside a Washington shopping mall last week went viral on social media and beyond.
As popular as the hands-free segways have become, there's growing concern about how often and where else they could potentially burst into flames — like in the air. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that British Airways is among a number of airline carriers that are beginning to ban the carriage of hoverboards out of fear that they could pose a fire hazard onboard flights.
A majority of the hoverboards on the market run on lithium batteries, which can catch fire when there's a short-circuit, or defect or when damaged.
However, there's more to it than just that. David Brennan, the assistant director of cargo safety for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), says airlines are mostly concerned with how the hoverboards are made. Since there are multiple manufacturers of the devices, the techniques used to build them — not to mention their machinery — varies, only creating more doubt with airlines.
The United Kingdom's National Trading Standards consumer protection agency reported to the Wall Street Journal that its authorities inspected 17,000 hoverboards, of which 88 percent were deemed to be faulty due to a host of different reasons.
"There have been some incidents of fumes and small fires on [hoverboards]," Gilberto Lopez Meyer, IATA senior vice president, told the Journal.
Compounding this matter is that hoverboards are often sold in airports, something that the IATA is trying to put a stop to.
For the airlines that haven't banned hoverboards, Brennan says that they should at least be stored in cabins, where flight crews are trained to handle fires.
How long will it take for multiple hoverboard manufacturers to address fire concerns for their products?
