Airliners Are Now Being Outfitted with Fire-containment Bags in Case of Exploding Devices

Across the world, Galaxy Note 7 devices have been going up in flames. That in itself is terrifying, but what would happen if a phone caught fire whilst the plane was in flight? Well, commercial airlines may have a solution: fireproof bags.

These fire-containment bags are bright red in color, and are made of a fire-resistant material that can withstand up to 3,200 degrees Fahrenheit. They close shut with Velcro and heavy-duty zippers. They’re not only designed for phones, but overheating laptops and tablets as well. They’re not cheap, though. Each bag retails for around $1,800, but airlines are probably getting them at a bulk rate, according to the Associated Press.

Of course, it’s not entirely fair to place the blame solely on the Galaxy Note 7. Alaska Airlines was the first to outfit their entire fleet with these fire-containment bags — and they completed that process way back in May of this year, long before Samsung’s now infamous phablet started spontaneously igniting.

Virgin America — acquired by Alaska earlier this year — was the second airline to deploy these bags across their planes. Delta Airlines will be next, with plans to use the bags on all 900 of their planes — though, according to the AP, Delta will focus on outfitting larger jumbo jets with the bags first, and then expand into domestic flights in 2017.

Other airlines, such as United, Southwest, American and JetBlue currently don’t have immediate plans to add these bags to their fleets. But they did mention that their flight crews are trained to react to fires specifically caused by malfunctioning electronics, the Associated Press reported.

Problems with overheating devices did not start with the Galaxy Note 7, either. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration has recorded 129 incidents involving batteries overheating, smoking or exploding over the past 25 years. There were 23 instances of igniting batteries in 2016, a fairly significant increase from the 15 recorded in 2015, according to CNET. So while the Galaxy Note 7 wasn’t the first device to start catching fire, it certainly helped to bring the possibility of battery fires to the public’s attention.