Carrying lithium batteries in cargo is plain dangerous, says aviation agency

Dubai - Portable Electronic Devices placed in checked baggage have to be completely switched off.

A new set of guidelines from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) says that the US ban on carry-on electronics from a number of Middle Eastern countries - including the UAE - may do more harm than good.
EASA, which oversees safety in 32 countries, has expressed concerns that lithium batteries may cause fires in the cargo hold of an aircraft, two weeks after the US and British ban on devices including laptops and iPads.
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"Portable Electronic Devices (PEDs) containing lithium batteries carried by passengers should preferably be carried in the passenger cabin, on the person or in the carry-on baggage," reads the bulletin. "This would enable the crew to react expeditiously in case an incident involving such PED occurs."
"When the carriage of PEDs in the cabin is prohibited, this will lead to a significant increase of the number of PEDs carried in the cargo compartment, in checked baggage. This should be taken into account as part of the operator's safety risk assessment process, and appropriate precautions should be applied to mitigate the associated risks, such as fire in the cargo hold," the bulletin adds.
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The report includes a number of safety precautions that EASA recommends for flights in which devices must be stowed away.
"PEDs placed in checked baggage have to be completely switched off and effectively protected from accidental activation. To ensure that the device is never powered on during its transport, any applications, alarms or pre-set configurations that may activate the device have to be disabled or deactivated," the report reads.
Additionally, the report notes that devices placed in checked baggage "have to be protected from damage by applying suitable packaging or casing or by being placed in a rigid bag protected by adequate cushioning (e.g. clothing)."
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In cases where electronic devices are placed directly in the hold after being collected at the boarding gate - as is now the case with Dubai's Emirates Airline - EASA recommends that devices "should be dispersed in the cargo hold, avoiding consolidation in a single container or location, and when practicable, away from any other dangerous goods."
Electronics ban to expand?
The EASA safety bulletin comes as a senior US official has said that the country may expand the ban further.
In a Senate hearing in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly noted that he believes that the threat of an aircraft being blown up during flight is "real".
"It's getting realer," he is quoted as saying by AFP. "We may take measures in the not-too-distant future to expand the number of airports."
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Kelly added that "on any given day" dozens of terrorist cells discuss mounting such an operation.
"You just watch them over time and see if they go from talking to actually doing something," he said. "There is a real threat all of the time."
"If we cannot get our arms around the current threat, you can expect additional protocol adjustments in the very near future," he added.
Fatal delivery on board
In 2010, UPS Airlines Flight 6 from Dubai to Cologne crashed shortly after take-off, in an unpopulated area between Emirates road Al Ain highway, killing two crewmembers. The US National Safety Transportation Board and the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority and determined that "a significant" number of lithium batteries and "other combustible materials" were stored in the cargo hold, contributing to an on-board fire.
Several months later, the US Federal Aviation Authority restricted lithium batteries being carried in large quantities on passenger flights.
bernd@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai