Thu, Jul 13, 2006
Lithium Batteries Receiving VERY Close Scrutiny
How safe are lithium
batteries when they're carried as cargo aboard aircraft? It's a
valid question, given how pervasive they are. Lithium batteries are
used in all sorts of laptops... and cell phones as well.
Now, the NTSB wants to know if lithium batteries carried as
cargo aboard a UPS DC-8 flight caused a fire that burned for about
more than four hours in Philadelphia last February.
As Aero-News reported, the
crew declared an emergency while on approach. All three crew
members were able to escape the rapidly escalating fire, and were
treated for minor injuries.
The NTSB isn't fixed on lithium batteries as the cause of the
fire -- not yet -- but several other possible ignition sources have
been ruled out.
Furthermore, there's the sketchy safety record involving lithium
ion power cells on board airplanes.
The Washington Post reports less than two months ago, a battery
packed in a bag stowed in an overhead bin on a flight in Chicago
started to smoke. A flight attendant used a fire extinguisher on
it, and the battery was hauled off the plane and dumped on the
tarmac -- where it burst into flames.
In Memphis, two years ago, a shipment of lithium batteries bound
for Paris erupted in flames as it was being loaded onto an
aircraft. And back in 1999, a similar shipment burned as it was
being unloaded from a passenger flight at LAX.
In the case of the UPS DC-8 that went up in flames on that cold
February night in Philadelphia... several lithium batteries were
found in the wreckage... many of them partially burned.
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