There were 221 kilograms of lithium ion batteries in the belly hold of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

[John Eucist]

Article ends with:
"Therefore, continuing to allow the carriage of lithium batteries within today's transport category aircraft cargo compartments is an unacceptable risk to the air transport industry," the paper concluded.

http://www.joc.com/air-cargo/lithium-battery-cargo-carried-missing-malaysia-flight-mh370_20150309.html
 

HONG KONG — There were 221 kilograms of lithium ion batteries in the belly hold of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that vanished in March last year, according to the first comprehensive report into the disappearance of the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing aircraft.

Information on the cargo payload was included in the 600-page report by an independent group of investigators that was released at the weekend, although the report does not apportion blame or liability. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew on board on Mar. 8, 2014. No trace of the aircraft has been found and there are no indications of what happened.

The latest report comes as the International Coordination Council of Aerospace Industry Associations, which represents planemakers Boeing and Airbus, issued calls for a ban on bulk lithium battery shipments on passenger planes, calling the threat of fires "an unacceptable risk.”

The investigation into MH370 revealed that the lithium battery shipment on board was packed by Motorola Solutions in Malaysia’s northern Penang state, a Southeast Asian electronic manufacturing hub, and did not pass through security screening at Penang airport. Instead, the shipment was inspected physically by airline cargo personnel and cleared inspection by customs before it was sealed and left Penang a day before the flight.

At the Kuala Lumpur airport, the lithium battery cargo was loaded onto the plane without any additional security screening. The report said there were 99 shipments of lithium ion batteries on Malaysia Airlines flights to Beijing from January to May last year. However, the batteries were not regulated as dangerous goods.

Asked if this was unusual, Paul Tsui, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics (Haffa), said if lithium ion batteries, either packed with equipment or contained in equipment, conformed to regulations, they were regarded as safe to ship via air freight on passenger aircraft.

He said shippers did not need to provide a Shipper’s Declaration for Dangerous Goods, but the wording “lithium ion batteries in compliance with Section II of packing Instruction 965” had to be included on the air waybill. The shipment would be checked for compliance before being loaded on the flight.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), lithium metal batteries were prohibited from being carried on passenger aircraft only when shipped by themselves. The prohibition does not apply to lithium metal batteries packed with equipment or contained in equipment, such as in mobile phones.

The shipment of lithium ion batteries on MH370 is interesting considering the regulatory scrutiny applied to the cargo that was further tightened following two freighter crashes attributed to batteries catching fire. On July 29, 2011, an Asiana Airlines B747 freighter crashed off Korea, killing its two pilots, after lithium batteries ignited. Among the payload were electronic products, mobile phones, liquid crystal displays, LEDs, the batteries and liquids. On Sept. 6, 2010, crew on a UPS B747-400 freighter reported smoke in the cockpit shortly after takeoff from Dubai and crashed as the pilots attempted to return to the airport.

Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO, said the continued safe transportation of lithium batteries remained a key concern for the industry, especially in China where the bulk of the world’s lithium batteries are produced.

“Robust regulations and guidance exist, but these are not being fully adhered to by all shippers,” he told the IATA World Cargo Symposium in Shanghai.

IATA has developed “Lithium Battery Shipping Guidelines” in Chinese to raise awareness on this vital issue, but Tyler said it was one for government authorities to address.

“Regulators need to step up. The industry is doing what it can, but without oversight, surveillance and where necessary, enforcement, compliance at the source of the shipment will be limited,” Tyler said.

During demonstrations at a dangerous goods panel (DGP) working group on lithium batteries held in April 2014, IATA reached some disturbing conclusions on how fire created different reactions depending on the battery type, manufacturer, and chemistry.

“The meeting concluded that fires in flight involving certain types and quantities of lithium metal batteries have the potential to result in an uncontrolled fire leading to a catastrophic failure of the airframe,” the meeting found.

The International Coordination Council of Aerospace Industry Associations paper supports the IATA findings. Recent testing by the Federal Aviation Administration showed the batteries emitted explosive gases when overheated. Shipments commonly contained tens of thousands of batteries packed tightly in air cargo containers.

In the test fires, a buildup of gases inside the containers led to explosions and violent fires that aircraft fire protection systems were unable "to suppress or extinguish a fire involving significant quantities of lithium batteries, resulting in reduced time available for safe flight and landing of an aircraft to a diversion airport," according to the paper.

"Therefore, continuing to allow the carriage of lithium batteries within today's transport category aircraft cargo compartments is an unacceptable risk to the air transport industry," the paper concluded.

Contact Greg Knowler at gknowler@joc.com and follow him on Twitter: @greg_knowler.

[dmethvin]

I had read that a while back and it surprised me. I thought they already didn't allow large amounts of batteries on passenger flights? Obviously, a bunch of batteries packed together on a pallet are going to pose more risk than a few random passenger devices in the overhead compartments and cargo hold, just from the risk of a chain reaction alone. Plus, the main risk as I understand it is from physical damage and that's more likely if some careless cargo handler accidentally jabbed the pallet with a forklift.

[esaj]

Battery University's got a good article about the safety of Li-Ions and some statistics about the fault rates and flight restrictions:

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/safety_of_lithium_ion_batteries

Li-ion has improved and the failure rate has been reduced to one-in-10 million. This is reassuring, but the formula of one-in-10 million could cause 200 cells to fail in the batch of two billion that Tesla plans to consume. It is likely that the failure rate has gone down further but caution is in place when storing tons of batteries in one place. Fires with battery manufacturers and in warehoused storing batteries are common.

...

Transporting batteries by air remains a concern. There are regulations as to how much metallic (or equivalent) lithium can be included in an air shipment. Some content may go unregistered and the United Arab Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority found with reasonable certainty that the fire aboard the UPS 747-400 freighter was caused by a lithium battery. The aircraft went down on September 2010 in the Dubai desert about an hour into its flight to Cologne, Germany.

New air cargo containers are being developed and tested with material that can withstand intense fires for up to four hours. This will allow the preparation of an emergency landing on most flights. The fire-resistant panels of these air cargo containers consist of fibre-reinforced plastic composite that snuffs fire by depriving it of oxygen.

A fire is easier to put out in the cabin than in the cargo bay and since January 2008 people can no longer pack spare lithium batteries in checked baggage. Airlines allow them as carry-on where fire extinguishers are available. A coffee pot served as an extinguishing device of a flaming laptop battery in one incident. Travelers are reminded of how many batteries can be carried on board in portable devices and as spares. This also includes primary lithium batteries and the maximum measured in grams are:

• 2 grams for lithium batteries. Few consumer products use these primary batteries today.
• 8 grams for a secondary lithium-ion. This amounts to a 100Wh battery (laptop has about 60Wh)
• 25 grams for all Li-ion combined. This amounts to 300Wh worth of Li-ion batteries.

While Li-ion is being scrutinized for safety, other chemistries also exhibit problems. Nickel- and lead-based batteries cause fires too, and some are being recalled. Reasons for failure are defective separators resulting from aging, rough handling, excessive vibration and high-temperature.

Examining 113 recorded incidents of transporting batteries by air in 19 years reveals that most failures occurred due to inappropriate packaging or handling. Damaged battery pack and electrical short due to careless packaging were the main culprits. Most incidents happened at airports or in cargo hubs. Problem batteries include primary lithium that contains lithium-metal, as well as lead, nickel and alkaline systems, and not just lithium-ion, as is perceived. Modern consumer products have very few failures involving Li-ion batteries today.

 

[Noam]

Article ends with:
"Therefore, continuing to allow the carriage of lithium batteries within today's transport category aircraft cargo compartments is an unacceptable risk to the air transport industry," the paper concluded.

http://www.joc.com/air-cargo/lithium-battery-cargo-carried-missing-malaysia-flight-mh370_20150309.html
 

O your phrophetic soul!

Attached is an article from todays Wall Street Journal Asia. And to me it looks that passenger airplanes might be the thin end of the wedge.

WSJ 2015-07-20 Batteries.pdf