The Wall Street Journal
By Andy Pasztor
Oct. 13, 2014 2:55 p.m. ET
An international team of aviation-safety experts has called for sweeping changes in packaging and other safeguards to limit the fire hazard posed by bulk shipments of lithium batteries on commercial planes.
The safety recommendations—urging wide-ranging revisions of existing practices—were approved last month by an advisory panel to the International Civil Aviation Organization, in the latest sign of growing industry worries about such dangers to aircraft. ICAO, as the body is known, is an arm of the United Nations.
The proposals, which haven’t been reported before, set the stage for major battles pitting pilot unions and other advocates of change against battery makers—a fast-growing global industry that annually churns out billions of cells and generates an estimated $12 billion in revenue from rechargeable batteries alone.
Going further than previous international efforts, the move was spurred partly by new research in the U.S. showing that various types of lithium batteries, once they catch fire in the bellies of jetliners, can be more hazardous than previously thought as the blaze jumps from one package to the next in a chain reaction. Batteries can catch fire due to internal short-circuit, puncture or some other type of damage.
Seeking to prevent potentially rapid spread of heat and flames in bulk shipments of lithium batteries carried by cargo and passenger airliners world-wide, the ICAO panel called for inserting gels or other types of cooling agents between batteries or power packs. If adopted, the changes would lead to higher costs and extra weight for shippers.
The recommendations also urge further reductions in the level of electrical charge inside lithium-ion batteries slated for airborne shipments—one more way to reduce flammability and possible explosions. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are widely used to power cellphones, laptops, personal electronic devices, power tools and other digital gadgets.
The proposals are slated to be considered later this month by a decision-making group of ICAO. The focus is on bulk shipments of batteries or power packs, not batteries carried by individual passengers. A final decision and implementation could take years.
In June, ICAO prohibited all passenger planes from carrying lithium-metal batteries, which aren’t rechargeable and are often used in toys and cameras. They are considered the most fire-prone type of lithium batteries. The ban takes effect in January.
But details of the latest recommendations are likely to spark more controversy. “They are new, they’re broad and very comprehensive,” according to George Kerchner, executive director of the Rechargeable Battery Association. In an interview Sunday, he said ICAO “is setting the table for the next two to four years” of intense discussion with industry.
Mr. Kerchner said it was too early to comment on specifics, adding that his members look forward to working with ICAO and outside experts.
In the past, battery manufacturers and their trade groups have said existing packaging and labeling requirements—combined with ICAO-mandated quality controls at the factory—provide adequate protections. Some of the same officials also have said that across-the-board requirements to ship lithium-ion batteries with no more than 30% of their maximum charge—as the panel of experts recommended—could damage some power packs by reducing their ultimate useful life, and may be inappropriate for certain medical and military applications in which there isn’t time to fully recharge.
Lithium batteries have been implicated in intense, quickly spreading fires that brought down two jumbo freighters—and ravaged another big cargo jet on the ground—during the past eight years. Investigators from the United Arab Emirates determined that a United Parcel Service Inc. Boeing 747 crashed in Dubai in 2010, killing both pilots, after a fire started in a section of the main deck containing lithium batteries and other combustible materials. Less than three minutes after the initial warning to the crew, flight controls were severely damaged. The cockpit quickly filled with so much smoke that the pilots couldn’t monitor their instruments, change radio frequencies or see anything inside or outside.
In the U.S., makers of batteries, electronic devices and joined forces years ago to scuttle proposals by the Federal Aviation Administration to limit the total number of lithium batteries carried by planes. The concerted opposition, including retail organizations, likewise beat back plans for tough new restrictions on where batteries could be placed on cargo aircraft. FAA rules already ban all lithium-metal battery shipments on passenger jets, though they are allowed in other parts of the world.
But now, ICAO officials appear to be pursuing what appears to be a more ambitious agenda covering rechargeable lithium-ion versions, as well. Experts are considering everything from potential changes in cargo compartment liners to revised fire-suppression techniques. A blaze involving “significant quantities of lithium batteries…could lead to a catastrophic failure of the airframe,” according to a summary of the September meeting.
To avoid so-called “thermal runaway” conditions that can mean temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the experts want aviation regulators to broadly reassess design standards for aircraft when it comes to transporting batteries and various types of hazardous goods.
Documents reviewed by the expert panel before making its recommendations last month highlight that issue. European plane maker Airbus Group NV submitted a position paper concluding that current packaging requirements fail to reflect airplane limitations and “current aircraft certification standards do not address changing industry market needs.” The situation “has shown a clear need for improvements,” according to Airbus. A company spokesman didn’t have any immediate comment.
A spokesman for Boeing Co., which also participated in last month’s deliberations, declined to comment.
During the summer, Nancy Graham, ICAO’s top safety official, signaled the impending debate by saying lithium-battery safety was “a big issue” and the industry needed to help regulators understand and quantify the risks. The agenda for ICAO’s next meeting on the subject, starting Oct. 20 in Rio de Janeiro, indicates that ICAO’s Dangerous Goods Panel also will consider recommendations from U.A.E. accident investigators. Their final report on the UPS crash, among other things, urged enhanced fire-suppression systems for cargo jets, reclassification of lithium batteries into a different category of hazardous materials and mandatory limits on the number of batteries that can be transported by a single aircraft.
The UPS Boeing 747 had more than 80,000 batteries onboard. Ground tests with a substantially smaller load of lithium-metal batteries showed conventional firefighting chemicals can’t control such a blaze. Separate tests with a similar quantity of lithium-ion batteries resulted in an explosion that spewed burning remnants some 150 feet.
During an industry conference in August, Gus Sarkos, manager of the FAA’s fire-safety branch, showed videos of attempts to put out battery fires in test conditions, and told attendees “the more testing we do, the more concerned we are about these dangers.”
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