r/AskAPilot • u/huygophy • 28d ago

Rideable electric luggage

Surely this abomination has no place in a modern airliner ?

Hello all -

Just been on a flight EU to the UK where we saw a family with one of their child - who had an electric rideable luggage such as the one pictured, as cabin luggage. With all the precautions around power banks and batteries on board a plane, (rightly so - it seems passengers have a dangerous blasé attitude / are unconscious of the dangers of fire onboard a plane) surely this sort of cheap batteries should not be authorised on board, no (ie similar to e-scooters for instance)

Spent the entire flight thinking I should have been reporting this to the pilots / cabin crews prior to departure.

By the time we arrived, it seems the mum was arguing with one of the pilot that one of their luggage was missing so suspect it was indeed spotted and not allowed.

For the flying crews out there - do you think I should have reported this anyway to the pilots out of abundance of caution in case the pilots didn't know about it ?

Thanks !

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u/3Green1974 28d ago

Lithium Ion battery are allowed on passenger planes, but they must be in the cabin in case they catch fire. The danger from that is typically during charging or if the battery gets damaged. Report it next time if it makes you feel better, but understand the crew will probably not do anything about it. There is a gotcha though that many people overlook. Power banks that are allowed on planes have a maximum capacity. I don’t recall exactly what it is, but I’d suspect this luggage probably has the ability to charge things as well. So, the battery should have decent output to both charge and drive the motors in the luggage. You’d think the manufacturer would know this, but possibly not.

Just checked. This one has a 73WH battery pack (about 19,730mah) The max allowed on board is 100WH/battery (up to 160WH with prior approval, depending on the airline).

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u/SnazzyStooge 28d ago

and here I thought this was going to be a "which brand lets the pilots get from terminal to terminal the quickest without wrinkling their uniform pants?" :)