UN panel bans lithium battery shipments on passenger planes

UN panel bans lithium battery shipments on passenger planes

PanARMENIAN.Net - UN panel on Monday, Feb 22, approved a temporary ban on cargo shipments of rechargeable lithium batteries on passenger planes because they can create intense fires capable of destroying an aircraft, the Associated Press reports.

The decision by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization's top-level governing council isn't binding, but most countries follow the agency's standards. The ban is effective on April 1.

"This interim prohibition will continue to be in force as separate work continues through ICAO on a new lithium battery packaging performance standard, currently expected by 2018," said Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, the ICAO council's president.

Namrata Kolachalam, a U.S. Transportation Department spokeswoman, called the ban "a necessary action to protect passengers, crews, and aircraft from the current risk to aviation safety."

Lithium-ion batteries are used in a vast array of products from cellphones and laptops to some electric cars. About 5.4 billion lithium-ion cells were manufactured worldwide in 2014. A battery is made up of two or more cells. A majority of batteries are transported on cargo ships, but about 30 percent are shipped by air.

Airlines flying to and from the U.S. that accept lithium battery shipments carry 26 million passengers a year, the Federal Aviation Administration estimates. The ban doesn't apply to batteries packaged inside equipment like a laptop with a battery inside, for example.

PRBA — The Rechargeable Battery Association, which opposed the ban, said in a statement that the industry is preparing to comply with the ban, but there may be "significant disruption in the logistics supply chain," especially for batteries used in medical devices.

Aviation authorities have long known that the batteries can self-ignite, creating fires that are hotter than 1,100 degrees. That's near the melting point of aluminum, which is used in aircraft construction.

Safety concerns, the AP says, increased after FAA tests showed gases emitted by overheated batteries can build up in cargo containers, leading to explosions capable of disabling aircraft fire suppression systems and allowing fires to rage unchecked. As a result of the tests, an organization representing aircraft manufacturers — including the world's two largest, Boeing and Airbus — said last year that airliners aren't designed to withstand lithium battery fires and that continuing to accept battery shipments is "an unacceptable risk."

Since 2006, three cargo jets have been destroyed and four pilots killed by in-flight fires that accident investigators say were either started by batteries or made more severe by their proximity.

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