The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) panel on dangerous goods voted 11-7 Wednesday against a ban on rechargeable battery shipments on passenger aircraft, according to a report by The Assocated Press (AP). The panel’s decision is a recommendation to ICAO’s air navigation bureau (ANB), whose recommendations are generally upheld by the ANB.
The United States, Russia, Brazil, China and Spain, as well as organisations representing airline pilots and aircraft manufacturers, voted in favour of the ban during the meeting at ICAO’s headquarters in Montreal, according to the AP report which cited unnamed officials. The Netherlands, Canada, France, Australia, Italy, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom, as well as the International Air Transport Association, a global airline trade group, voted against it. One official said Germany also voted against the ban, but that couldn’t be confirmed.
Opponents of the ban argued that the decision on whether to accept battery shipments should be left up to airlines, the officials said. As the result of the US testing, nearly 30 airlines around the world say they no longer accept bulk battery shipments as cargo, but many other airlines continue to accept the shipments.
However, supporters of the ban pointed out that airlines may have trouble accurately assessing the risk posed by battery shipments if they don’t know how many batteries they’ll have on board. The changes approved by the panel don’t limit how many undeclared, small battery packages can be shipped on a single aircraft, only how many can be packed together into a single shipment.
The panel also agreed that the number of batteries that can be shipped without requiring the shipper to inform the airline that the shipment contains batteries should be severely limited. It also voiced support for industry proposals that batteries being shipped carry a maximum 30 per cent charge—versus the current typical level of 40 per cent or higher—to make them less flammable and prevent the emission of potentially explosive fumes in case of a blaze.
US Federal Aviation Administration tests have shown small quantities of overheated lithium-ion batteries can cause explosions that can disable aircraft fire protection systems. The explosions knock panels off the interior walls of cargo compartments, allowing halon gas — the fire suppression system used in airliners — to escape and dissipate. With no halon, a fire could rage unchecked and lead to the destruction of the plane.
The battery industry and companies that rely on battery shipments have long said that the problem should be addressed by cracking down on shady battery makers who don’t use proper shipping procedures. The global battery industry churns out billions of cells annually and generates an estimated US$12 billion in revenue just from rechargeable batteries, which are widely used in everything from cellphones to laptops to various hand-held electronic devices.
