A Frankfurt-to-Lisbon flight made an unplanned stop in France on Saturday night after a passenger's power bank caught fire in a seat. Lufthansa flight LH1170, an Airbus A321-200, left Frankfurt nearly an hour behind schedule on September 26 before the crew diverted to Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport, declaring an air emergency to get priority landing clearance. The aircraft touched down at 9:55 PM local time.
A Lufthansa spokesperson told RTL that the overheated device had been secured in a lithium-safe bag, but the cockpit crew decided an alternative landing was the safest call. With 198 passengers and six crew aboard and the night well underway, Lufthansa put everyone up in Lyon hotels rather than pressing on to Lisbon. The plane flew back to Frankfurt the next afternoon as a ferry flight, while affected travellers were rebooked — with the most obvious options being TAP Air Portugal and easyJet, who each ran two Lyon-Lisbon services that day. The jet itself was back in service within a day, flying to Nuremberg, Nice and Athens.
The incident is a reminder of a rule change many travellers have missed. Lufthansa tightened its power bank policy earlier this year as lithium-ion battery fires in cabins have become one of aviation's growing safety headaches. Under the current rules, power banks must travel in your hand luggage — never checked — and you're limited to two per person, each rated no more than 100 Wh. Anything above that needs prior transport approval. Crucially, you can't use or charge a power bank mid-flight at all, with the only exception being devices needed for medical equipment. They also can't sit in the overhead locker above your seat, which keeps them visible and reachable if something goes wrong.
If you're flying Lufthansa in the coming months, it's worth a quick check of your bag before you leave. If your power bank's capacity isn't printed on it, you can usually work it out from the battery's voltage and milliamp-hours. And if you do carry one, keep it under the seat in front of you — that's precisely what the rules are designed to encourage, and this Lyon diversion shows why the airline cares. A cheap accessory can cost a whole planeload of people their evening, their connection and a night in an airport hotel. Credit: Simple Flying.
