Fire in cockpit with ipad

[GeeBee]

My First Officer's Microsoft Surface tablet started smoking. This is right after we got them. We did not have the PED bags and we were over the North Atlantic. The procedure said do not submerge in water......but it said nothing about ice. So I had the Purser bring up a huge bucket of ice and I slammed it into the ice with Halon standing by. It all stopped. Problem solved.

[Nico1]

10 hours ago, McMooney said:

throw it out the window ?

Risk of hitting elevator?

[Jackk]

For the non temu level products, it more that you drop it in an odd way rupturing the battery, or run it over with the seat that starts the fire.

 

 Also picking up a lithium fire with bare hands?   Yeah that’s ether not going to happen or you’re going be be called “lefty” after doing it, pain tolerance wise doubt you’ll hold it long enough to do anything with it

If you’re going to do it I’d get the whole kit (like what I posted), or maybe just firebane to pour over it, or just roll the dice on a rupture, and don’t buy cheap stuff. 

[hazek]

6 hours ago, GeeBee said:

My First Officer's Microsoft Surface tablet started smoking. This is right after we got them. We did not have the PED bags and we were over the North Atlantic. The procedure said do not submerge in water......but it said nothing about ice. So I had the Purser bring up a huge bucket of ice and I slammed it into the ice with Halon standing by. It all stopped. Problem solved.

So this means that using the on board fire extinguisher could actually be effective since it works by removing heat? Provided one acts fast before the chain reaction can happen, rapid cooling via the fire extinguisher could stop the batter fire?

[Scottknoll]

Based on the AC, FAA now recommends two steps. Extinguisher to extinguish flames, so the fire doesn’t spread to other items in the airplane. Then liquid to cool the cells. I don’t think the fire extinguisher cools anything, halon just stops the chemical reaction of fire. I think the idea is to knock down the flames so you can get liquid on it to cool the batteries.

A little easier in a large airliner than a Mooney. But those videos of battery fires are eye opening.

[GeeBee]

55 minutes ago, hazek said:

So this means that using the on board fire extinguisher could actually be effective since it works by removing heat? Provided one acts fast before the chain reaction can happen, rapid cooling via the fire extinguisher could stop the batter fire?

My theory is halon will counter act the oxygen generation of the burning lithium cell. Not sure how much halon it takes, but I suspect a lot.

[Hank]

1 hour ago, GeeBee said:

My theory is halon will counter act the oxygen generation of the burning lithium cell. Not sure how much halon it takes, but I suspect a lot.

I don't want to be in any Mooney while someone sprays Halon anywhere . . .

[GeeBee]

1 hour ago, Hank said:

I don't want to be in any Mooney while someone sprays Halon anywhere . . .

Trust me, they are not tight enough.

[McMooney]

On 11/13/2025 at 10:30 PM, LANCECASPER said:

A phone might fit, but I don't think a tablet would.

My mini and ipad  fit  thru window, really only fly with the mini however, find the ipad just cumbersome

[IvanP]

Are there any documented instances of in-flight cabin fire in Mooney? My cursory search did not come up with anything. It would be interesting to know how the pilot handled the situation, regardless of the cause of the fire. 

[wombat]

This is not in a Mooney but I found one report of an iPad catching fire on an airplane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x06_h_fa1gw

 

iPads not perfectly safe but the risk of a fire is quite low frequency.     How much time/effort/money/space/weight is the right amount to mitigate this risk?    IMO, next to none.  While the risk is there, after 15 (almost 16) years since the iPad was released there have been several iPad fires, but we are probably all better off directing our resources to mitigate other risks before we spend any mitigating this one.

 

[Hank]

1 hour ago, IvanP said:

Are there any documented instances of in-flight cabin fire in Mooney? My cursory search did not come up with anything. It would be interesting to know how the pilot handled the situation, regardless of the cause of the fire. 

There's always the poor E with the dropped battery pack that caught fire while taxiing for departure . . .

[Austintatious]

On 11/13/2025 at 10:30 PM, LANCECASPER said:

A phone might fit, but I don't think a tablet would.

For a tablet fire, Ill just slow down and open the door and toss it out the door. 

[McMooney]

3 hours ago, Austintatious said:

For a tablet fire, Ill just slow down and open the door and toss it out the door. 

this works also

[MikeOH]

48 minutes ago, McMooney said:

this works also

Sorry, I’m skeptical. Trying to grab a hot flaming and smoking iPad and getting it out a door past a passenger seems a bit challenging especially while maintaining control of the aircraft!

[IvanP]

8 minutes ago, MikeOH said:

Sorry, I’m skeptical. Trying to grab a hot flaming and smoking iPad and getting it out a door past a passenger seems a bit challenging especially while maintaining control of the aircraft!

That is my primary concern. The in-flight fires that we can see on the videos appear to have occurred in airliners where there is relatively ample space and resources to handle such situation. Mooney cabin with a single pilot - not so much. The idea of handling a burning object in small cabin while controlling a plane is certainly not very appealing. 

[Hank]

19 minutes ago, MikeOH said:

Sorry, I’m skeptical. Trying to grab a hot flaming and smoking iPad and getting it out a door past a passenger seems a bit challenging especially while maintaining control of the aircraft!

Your best chance is to quickly throw it out the storm window. Open it with your left hand, toss it with the right before it gets burned too badly.

[MikeOH]

16 minutes ago, Hank said:

Your best chance is to quickly throw it out the storm window. Open it with your left hand, toss it with the right before it gets burned too badly.

Not going to work with an iPad. That’s why, if the unthinkable happens, I’m hoping to just be able to fling it in the backseat and hope it burns out before igniting something else.

[McMooney]

If i have a passenger, then i'm telling the passenger to open the door.

I'll reach down, get my gloves, grab the ipad at the edge furthest from the smoke, out it goes.  also the def fit thru the storm windows

[MikeOH]

1 minute ago, McMooney said:

also the def fit thru the storm windows

Not sure what you mean, but NO WAY an iPad is going through the storm windows!

[Jackk]

You ain’t picking up a lithium fire with their bare hands, then pushing it out the window right by their face, highly doubt most people have the pain tolerance, they’d probably just make things worse.

 

Real world for a iPad, just don’t crush it, if you don’t a iPad or iPhone don’t go moving seats and stuff and worse you’re going to have is a scratch on your device 

[McMooney]

My choice is simple: either let a fire burn inside the cabin with 1974 upholstery and everything else that’s flammable right next to the fuel tanks, or get it out of the plane. It’s going OUT.

I don’t have a pail of water or a fire bag — the best I’ve got is a fire extinguisher, which may or may not be ideal. Worst case, I grab the vice grips and grill gloves I keep behind the passenger seat.

Edited November 16 by McMooney

[Austintatious]

14 hours ago, MikeOH said:

Sorry, I’m skeptical. Trying to grab a hot flaming and smoking iPad and getting it out a door past a passenger seems a bit challenging especially while maintaining control of the aircraft!

And you think grabbing it and shoving it into a fire bag will be easier somehow?   

[Vance Harral]

At the risk of beating a dead horse...   Over 40 posts in this thread about how we're going to deal with the specific, unlikely case of a LiPo battery fire.  But not a single follow up on emergency descent technique, which is important in any kind of fire, and in some other emergency situations as well.

Pilots - including me - are generally terrible at risk management.  We invest disproportionate time, money, and energy into the things that are least likely to kill us, while generally ignoring the things that are most likely.  It's just the nature of humans, I guess.

[Hank]

3 hours ago, Vance Harral said:

At the risk of beating a dead horse...   Over 40 posts in this thread about how we're going to deal with the specific, unlikely case of a LiPo battery fire.  But not a single follow up on emergency descent technique, which is important in any kind of fire,

There are two kinds of emergency descent:

1. Straight ahead, cruise configuration, push to descend a d stabilize airspeed just below Vne. I'll save this for an external engine fire, hoping to blow it out.

2. Reduce power, bank 45° and spiral down rapidly at cruise airspeed. This has pegged my IVSI at well over 2000 fpm, plenty fast enough from my typical 7-10K cruising altitude. 

Not only does the second get me down quicker, it's also more fun to do! And doesn't require keeping as close of an eye on the ASI or anything else on the panel.