Airport staff displayed hundreds of seized power banks under a new China aviation safety crackdown.

A security officer was seen stacking hundreds of confiscated devices in grey trays at an airport on June 28.

Footage shows the portable chargers being gathered and segregated in storage according to their power capacities.

On Friday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued a notice banning passengers from carrying power banks without China Compulsory Certification (3C) safety markings.

The measure applies to all travellers boarding flights in the country and aims to prevent dangerous incidents involving lithium battery products.

The CAAC had previously prohibited passengers and crew from carrying power banks with a rated energy capacity above 160Wh, a rule aligned with International Air Transport Association (IATA) guidelines, which limit spare lithium batteries to under 160 watt-hours and require airline approval for those between 100–160Wh.

However, the new regulations add the requirement that all power banks must bear 3C safety certification marks, clearly visible and intact. Devices with missing, tampered, or faded labels will be confiscated.

Lithium batteries, like those embedded in power banks, have been linked to numerous fire-related emergencies on planes.

When a lithium battery fails, it can undergo thermal runaway, a rapid, violent reaction in which one or more cells rupture. This process releases toxic, flammable, and explosive gases, creating an intense, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to extinguish in flight.

In 2017, a China Southern Airlines flight was delayed after a passenger's power bank ignited in the cabin, and in 2018, a similar incident occurred when a passenger's device burst into flames in her bag while boarding a China Eastern flight at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.