An E-cigarette sparked a blaze scare at an airport … and if it had happened minutes later would have caused a fire on board an aircraft.

A battery that powers the e-cigarette is thought to have exploded in a bag while a passenger was getting ready to check in on a Delta Air Lines flight at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, USA.

Security had to use a fire extinguisher on it.

If the flight had taken off the fire would have happened on board so it begs the question should E-cigarettes be allowed on planes at all?

Several major carriers now have AvSax fire containment bags on board so one would have been deployed to quickly douse the fire.

Simply pour at least 2 litres of water into the AvSax and pop the burning device in. The bag’s polymer gel inside expands to totally surround the device, instantly cooling it down to minimise the risk.

E-cigarettes are an alternative to smoking tobacco cigarettes, but quite often they’re proving to be dangerous. Security cameras have caught e-cigarettes exploding in people’s pockets on buses and in shops.

E-cigarettes are not on the travel advisory ban list and so are allowed on the planes. But, there again, so are mobile phones and both use the same lithium-ion battery technology.

It seems that bans will be impractical so it’s more important that cabin crew have the right equipment and training to act quickly when these lithium-ion battery fires happen … and they are becoming increasingly common.