Have you ever wondered why items like portable phone chargers have to go in your carry-on when flying? A recent incident on a flight from New York to Florida serves as the perfect example for why a seemingly unnecessary airline rule actually makes sense.



Musician Jimmy Levy recently took to Twitter to share a story from his recent flight home in which he was jolted awake by a “sudden and terrifying wave of heat” that ended up being his backpack, which he’d stowed under his seat, but was “now in a[n] exploding and floating ball of fire.”


“Acting quickly,” he continued, “I pushed it to the ground and began stomping on it frantically to prevent the blaze from spreading. With the help of the flight staff and water, the fire was contained.” The attached video shows flight attendants pouring water all over the backpack as other passengers attempt to disembark, as the incident luckily occurred before the flight had taken off.


According to police, the source of the fireball was an overheated portable phone charger stashed in Levy’s backpack. He cautioned people to be mindful of where they buy their phone products from — in his case, the charger came from a mall in Boca, Florida, “but I guess you can’t trust anything these days,” he added.


Bizarrely, Levy went on to state that he believed this was a “spiritual attack from the pits of hell” and that he rebuked the attack “in the name of Jesus,” which to me begs the question of what on earth Levy has done that would warrant an attack from Satan himself.


Demonic intervention aside, imagine if this had taken place with the charger in Levy’s checked luggage — the fire may not have been noticed until it was too late to do anything about it, a truly chilling thought. While some luggage restrictions seem excessive — how are liquids larger than 3.4 ounces dangerous? — keeping lithium ion batteries in your carry-on is one that does actually make sense now.


Maybe this whole thing was a false-flag operation carried out by the TSA to get people to stop questioning their rules. It’s at least as likely an option as the demonic-attack theory.