The IndiGo Bin Fire the November Rule Failed to Stop

IndiGo flight 6E 6115 diverted to Hyderabad on October 11 after a power bank caught fire in an overhead bin, with more than 180 passengers aboard and no injuries. The Airbus A321neo, registered VT-NOE, left Delhi at 1.30pm, was due in Chennai at 4pm, and landed at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at 3.59pm, according to FlightAware.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had already told airlines, in a circular dated November 11, 2025, that power banks must not go in those bins. The fire started there anyway.

Flames Showed in the Overhead Bin

Cabin video showed an orange glow inside the locker and smoke rolling into the aisle. Some passengers tried to smother it with bags and pieces of cloth while one voice told the cabin to stay calm. Crew then used onboard firefighting gear, and the pilots turned for Hyderabad as a precaution.

IndiGo did not name the device. Its statement called it a personal electronic device. Later accounts, and the video of flames in the bin, identified a power bank.

IndiGo flight 6E 6115, operating from Delhi to Chennai on October 11 was diverted to Hyderabad after smoke was detected from a customer’s personal electronic device. The cabin crew responded promptly and the situation was brought under control. In line with established protocols, the pilots diverted the flight and landed safely at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad. An alternate aircraft has been arranged to continue the journey to Chennai.

IndiGo statement, October 11, 2026

The airline said it offered refreshments and updates and regretted the disruption. Nobody was reported hurt, which is the part that separates this scare from the last one on the same carrier.

The Bin Ban Was Already on Paper

Dangerous Goods Advisory Circular No. 01/2025, file DGCA-13008/37/2025-IR-DGCA, went to air operators and airports on November 11, 2025. Item (viii) is blunt: power banks and spare batteries shall not be placed in overhead bins. Item (vii) tells airlines to announce that those packs travel only in hand baggage, that using or charging them in flight is not allowed, and that heat, smoke or an odd smell must be reported at once.

Lithium batteries placed in overhead stowage bins or within carry-on baggage may be obscured, difficult to access, or not readily monitored by passengers or crew members. This may result in delayed detection of smoke or fire and response actions, increasing the potential hazard to flight safety.

DGCA Dangerous Goods Advisory Circular No. 01/2025

The same circular says lithium battery fires can be self-sustaining and need special handling. It lists overheating, overcharging, crushing, internal short circuits, poor manufacturing, age and mishandling as triggers. In January 2026 the regulator restated the in-flight use ban, including plugging a pack into a seat outlet to charge a phone.

On 6E 6115 the pack was in the bin the circular had flagged, which is why detection started with smoke in the locker rather than a passenger holding a hot brick. That is the failure this diversion records, eleven months after the instruction.

Three IndiGo Fires in Twelve Months

This was the third lithium-pack scare on IndiGo in 357 days. The first two began in seat pockets, where a passenger or crew member can see the device. The third began above the aisle.

THE THREE INDIGO BATTERY FIRES

On 6E 2107, an A320neo registered VT-ISS, IndiGo said a passenger’s personal electronic equipment in the seat-back pocket set off a minor fire. The crew followed procedure and had it under control within seconds. The jet still flew to Dimapur after checks.

On 6E 108, with around 200 people on board, the DGCA said a power bank in a pouch at seat 39C ignited after landing at Chandigarh. Crew discharged two extinguishers. All six slides went out. Six people were hurt in the rush, among them Dr Richa Acharya of the Punjab health department, who needed surgery for a broken leg. Vikas Kapoor, seated near the row, said the pack kept burning internally and filled the cabin with thick smoke.

Had this happened mid-air, it would have been far more serious.

Vikas Kapoor, passenger on 6E 108, May 5, 2026

Five months later it did happen mid-air, in a bin rather than a seat pocket. The May evacuation injuries came from the slides, not the flame. The October diversion put the thermal event where the November circular said it would be hardest to see.

Why Power Banks Sit in the Cabin at All

The global packing rule is the reason these packs are next to people. Spare lithium batteries, including power banks, are barred from the hold because crew cannot fight a fire in the hold. IATA’s traveler guidance says a fire down there cannot be identified and put out at once, so the devices stay in the cabin, where crew can reach them.

IATA’s own survey shows how common the hardware is, and how often the hold rule is misunderstood.

WHAT IATA’S PASSENGER SURVEY FOUND

• Phones: 83% of travelers carry one.
• Power banks: 44% fly with a pack.
• Hold myth: 45% think a power bank can go in checked bags.
• Checked devices: Half of those surveyed think small lithium gadgets are fine in the hold.

Up to 100 Wh is the usual carry-on line with no extra paperwork. Packs between 100 Wh and 160 Wh can travel with airline approval. Anything over 160 Wh stays off passenger aircraft. An ICAO addendum that took effect on March 27, 2026, also sets no more than two power banks per person, bars recharging a pack on board, and recommends not using it to charge a phone in flight. IATA says the 100 to 160 Wh power-bank option will not appear in the 68th edition of its Dangerous Goods Regulations, which takes effect on January 1, 2027, citing weak oversight of cheap makers and counterfeit wireless packs.

IATA also tells passengers that if a device gets hot or smokes, they should switch it off if they can and call the crew, and that they should not try to cool it or move it themselves. On 6E 6115, people in the aisle went at the locker with bags and cloth before the extinguishers arrived. That is the cabin-only rule meeting a bin the crew could not see until it was already alight.

IndiGo Tells Flyers to Keep Them in Sight

IndiGo’s public cabin-baggage page already tracks the November circular. Power banks must be carried in hand baggage, kept within reach and unused in flight, capped at two per passenger, and each must not exceed 160 Wh. That 160 Wh figure is the carrier’s ceiling, including the approval band. IATA’s no-approval line remains 100 Wh.

The airline’s dangerous-goods table goes further. It says power banks are considered as spare batteries, must stay in carry-on bags, and, under Bureau of Civil Aviation Security notes printed on the same sheet, must be kept within sight and not in overhead bins. They must not be recharged, and should not be used to recharge another device on board.

WHAT PASSENGERS ARE TOLD TO DO

• Cabin only: Power banks never go in checked bags, on IndiGo or under IATA rules.
• In sight: Keep the pack in a seat pocket, a bag at your feet, or otherwise within reach, not in the locker.
• Switched off: Do not use it, charge a phone from it, or plug it into a seat outlet.
• Two-pack cap: Carry at most two, each within the airline’s watt-hour limit, terminals covered against shorts.
• Damaged packs: Swollen, punctured or cracked batteries stay off the aircraft.

Cabin announcements already say the bin is the wrong place. Replies to the 6E 6115 video made the same point: the briefing exists, and the pack still went up into the trough. A no-fly punishment for one passenger would not fix a stowage habit that screening does not catch. Gate agents pull liquids and batteries from bags that are being tagged into the hold. They do not, as a matter of routine, open every cabin bag to see whether a power bank is about to be lifted into a locker.

DGCA Barred One Power Bank Model

On September 29, Director General Vir Vikram Yadav signed a circular barring the MOBIKINS MK-PB-04 from every flight to, from or within India, in cabin bags, checked bags and cargo. The order cites a fire involving that model and tells airlines to identify it and warn passengers. It is not a ban on all power banks. News of the circular spread on October 14, three days after 6E 6115. The September text does not name 6E 6115, and IndiGo has not said the Hyderabad device was that model.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma used the diversion to argue for a wider prohibition, tagging the regulator the same afternoon.

Seeing many power bank fires on aircraft, I wonder why airlines and regulators won't ban power banks on flights. They require devices in airplane mode; I'd rather ban power banks on flights to / from and in India. @DGCAIndia https://t.co/B7SSJqseq2

— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) October 11, 2026

A total ban would collide with the reason the packs sit in the cabin. Long domestic sectors, delayed connections and dead phones are why 44% of travelers carry one. Pulling every pack off aircraft would push some of them into checked bags, which is the one place crew cannot reach a thermal runaway. The November circular already chose a narrower path: keep the hardware in sight, keep it unused, keep it out of the bin.

IndiGo’s cabin page already tells passengers to keep power banks within reach. DGCA’s November circular already tells airlines those packs shall not go in overhead bins. The fire on 6E 6115 started in one.