Swiss Flight LX16 Diverted After Headphone Charging Case Sparks Smoke

Swiss International Air Lines flight LX16 departed Zurich for New York JFK on 27 July with 208 passengers. About six and a half hours into the Airbus A330’s flight, smoke appeared in the forward Business Class cabin. Technical investigators later determined that a commercially available headphones charging case had slipped into a seat, become jammed, and its damaged lithium‑battery overheated, generating the smoke.

The pilots requested an immediate diversion, and the aircraft landed safely at Bangor International Airport in Maine. Fire crews inspected the aircraft and found no fire; all passengers and crew were unharmed. Swiss used the incident to restate its power‑bank policy, which bans charging devices or power banks on board, limits each passenger to two power banks kept on the person or in the seat pocket, and applies the same restrictions to e‑cigarettes.