Turns out the government's airplane laptop ban was actually a huge fire risk

Remember that time the United States government forced a bunch of passengers flying from overseas to put their laptops in checked luggage? Turns out placing those devices in your checked luggage could pose a huge fire and explosion risk on airplanes.

If the lithium-ion battery inside a laptop heats up too much inside the checked baggage compartment of a plane, it has the potential to start a fire, according to reported tests conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration. If that fire spreads to, say, a can of dry shampoo, the can might explode.

That explosion probably won't cause the plane to drop out of the sky, but there's a chance the blast could allow flames to spread with abandon.

The FAA noted all this in a paper filed to the International Civil Aviation Organization, an organization within the United Nations that proposes safety standards for airlines across the globe. Along with several other aviation organizations, the FAA recommends passengers not be allowed to check laptops or other electronics similar in size.

Earlier this year, the administration of President Donald Trump took the opposite position.

Because of an alleged security risk, the United States banned laptops in the cabin of planes for passengers traveling to the U.S. from select airports in the Middle East and on select Middle Eastern airlines. The laptop ban, as it came to be known, was lifted in pieces as airports and airlines reportedly introduced new security measures, and it was lifted everywhere after about four months.

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Perhaps we'll soon be looking at an opposite kind of ban. Although, as the FAA reportedly noted, it's not like too many people check their laptops.