ATW Daily News
ALPA claims lithium batteries caused freighter fires, calls for ban
Wednesday August 26, 2009
The Air Line Pilots Assn. yesterday urged the US government "to prohibit shipments of lithium batteries on passenger and all-cargo aircraft until new regulations are in place to ensure the safe transport of these hazardous materials," citing three recent incidents in which "fire, smoke or evidence of fire associated with battery shipments has occurred" on freighter aircraft.
ALPA is not pushing to restrict passengers from carrying lithium battery-powered devices such as laptop computers aboard aircraft, but it is concerned that lithium batteries shipped as cargo present a dangerous fire hazard. In a letter to the Dept. of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, ALPA President John Prater described the three recent incidents without naming the airlines or aircraft types involved.
He detailed an Aug. 14 incident at Minneapolis-St. Paul where a flight crew received a warning indicating smoke in the forward cargo compartment after landing. He noted that MSP firefighting personnel were called to the scene and "removed the cargo in the compartment and discovered a container emitting flames. . .initial indications are that the fire originated with the shipment of approximately 1,000 e-cigarettes, each containing a rechargeable lithium-ion battery."
In a July 15 incident in Santo Domingo, "several related packages transported from Romulus, Mich., [were] discovered to be emitting smoke and smoldering." Prater said the packages, labeled as "used batteries-non haz," in fact contained "numerous, loose lithium-ion cell phone batteries."
On July 18 in Honolulu, a package was found "burned" inside a ULD that contained a "lithium-ion bicycle-power device," he said, concluding, "If we are not able to secure these protections for the traveling public through swift regulatory action, we will ask Congress to immediately intervene to ensure the safe shipment of lithium batteries."
ALPA said there were no injuries or serious damage in the three cited incidents but warned that they "could have resulted in accidents. . .luck is not a sound safety strategy."
ALPA is not pushing to restrict passengers from carrying lithium battery-powered devices such as laptop computers aboard aircraft, but it is concerned that lithium batteries shipped as cargo present a dangerous fire hazard. In a letter to the Dept. of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, ALPA President John Prater described the three recent incidents without naming the airlines or aircraft types involved.
He detailed an Aug. 14 incident at Minneapolis-St. Paul where a flight crew received a warning indicating smoke in the forward cargo compartment after landing. He noted that MSP firefighting personnel were called to the scene and "removed the cargo in the compartment and discovered a container emitting flames. . .initial indications are that the fire originated with the shipment of approximately 1,000 e-cigarettes, each containing a rechargeable lithium-ion battery."
In a July 15 incident in Santo Domingo, "several related packages transported from Romulus, Mich., [were] discovered to be emitting smoke and smoldering." Prater said the packages, labeled as "used batteries-non haz," in fact contained "numerous, loose lithium-ion cell phone batteries."
On July 18 in Honolulu, a package was found "burned" inside a ULD that contained a "lithium-ion bicycle-power device," he said, concluding, "If we are not able to secure these protections for the traveling public through swift regulatory action, we will ask Congress to immediately intervene to ensure the safe shipment of lithium batteries."
ALPA said there were no injuries or serious damage in the three cited incidents but warned that they "could have resulted in accidents. . .luck is not a sound safety strategy."
by Aaron Karp
