Airline Pilots Want Ban on Lithium Battery Shipments

[The Straight Story]

Airline Pilots Want Ban on Lithium Battery Shipments

An airline pilot union is calling on the U.S. government to temporarily ban cargo shipments of lithium batteries, saying they represent a serious safety hazard.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which represents pilots in the U.S. and Canada, asked that the U.S. government prohibit shipments of lithium batteries on all cargo and passenger flights until measures are taken to insure that such shipments are safe. The proposed ban on the batteries, which are widely used in electronic devices like phones and computers, would not prohibit passengers from carrying batteries on planes.

"The evidence of a clear and present danger is mounting. We need an immediate ban on these dangerous goods to protect airline passengers, crews, and cargo," said Mark Rogers, director of ALPA's Dangerous Goods Programs, in a press release.

During the last two months, there have been three incidents where fire or smoke on aircraft was caused by shipments of lithium batteries. Those incidents were detailed in a letter that ALPA sent to Cynthia Douglass , acting deputy administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration of the Department of Transportation.

On August 14, the crew of a plane that landed in Minneapolis received a warning of smoke in the plane's forward cargo compartment. When fire crews opened the compartment, they found flames coming from a container filled with electronic cigarettes, each containing a lithium-ion battery. In another incident in July, a container filled with lithium-ion batteries on a flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was found smoking and smoldering.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/170815/airline_pilots_want_ban_on_lithium_battery_shipments.html

[ElboRuum]

1. Electronic Cigarettes?

I know I shouldn't ask and I know Google is my friend, but before I sate my curiosity... :wtf:

[Swede]

2. You smoke them when you are in virtual reality.

Bugger to quit though.

[Xithras]

5. They're used by some people to quit smoking.

It's a tube you suck through that sprays atomized liquid nicotine into the air. It's like smoking, only with no smoke.

Most doctors will warn people away from them because they can be just as addictive as real cigarrettes, but they're generally far less damaging that smoking real tobacco. There's a bit of debate over whether they should be encouraged as a replacement for traditional tobacco use, or slammed for perpetuating nicotine addiction.

[Javaman]

7. It's a robot thing. nt

[havocmom]

3. So, presently, grandma's knitting needles are a threat

but fire starting batteries are loaded up in bulk?

Glad I don't fly. Hope no flaming plane falls on me.

[Quasimodem]

4. I for one am not surprised . . .

... that the electronic cigarettes being sent to Santo Domingo and Dominican Republic had shorts.

I suggest they examine the luggage of eCiggies being sent to Bermuda, as well.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. fine, ship them by rail.. what's the big deal? If they may not be safe for planes then don't fly 'em