More than half of inflight fires in the last 10 years have happened in the last 3 years, coinciding with the proliferation of lithium-powered hand-held devices, such as those the flight attendants use to run credit cards for snack purchases in coach class. Recently the FAA figured out the lithium batteries were volatile little buggers, prone to exploding on occasion. For this reason the DOT has issued a travel advisory on the subject.
