Holidaymakers flying with Ryanair can expect to hear a new warning in the airline’s on-flight safety announcement after cabin crew added in an important message about electronic devices.
The airline now instructs customers to inform staff straight away if their personal tech devices, including mobile phones, laptops and iPads, start to overheat. The message is now included in the pre-flight safety briefing to all passengers at the start of each journey.
Seasoned holidaymakers will be used to being told how to fit their oxygen mask and put on a lifejacket in the event of an emergency before their flight takes off. But cabin crew are now informing customers that the warning over electronics is more important than lifejackets, The Mirror reports .
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Travellers are also instructed to tell cabin crew straight away if they misplace their device, in case it ends up overheating as it gets crushed within the seat. Ryanair staff now tell passengers: “If your device or its battery is damaged, hot, produces smoke, is lost or falls into the seat structure then please inform the cabin crew immediately.”
Personal electronic devices are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries - but many cheap versions of these batteries found online aren’t covered by safety standards, and can quickly catch fire in the event that they overhead. The Civil Aviation Authority says that such batteries are dangerous enough to cause a plane to go down in the event of a fire.
“Poor quality or counterfeit batteries have been the cause of fires on board aircraft,” the CAA warns, adding that fires involving lithium batteries can prove “catastrophic”. The authority adds: “In recent years we’ve seen a growing number of fire incidents involving lithium batteries which have the potential to lead to the loss of an aircraft.”
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