UN panel agrees to ban battery shipments on airliners

The International Civil Aviation Organization has placed a ban on the cargo shipment of lithium-ion batteries on passenger aircraft, following concerns from pilots that they constitute a fire risk.

Lithium metal batteries, which are used in watches, have already been banned on passenger planes globally.

The aviation funding measure also “directs the [Transportation] secretary to issue regulations consistent with worldwide technical instructions banning lithium ion batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft”. But the association warned about “significant disruption in the logistics supply chain”, especially for batteries powering medical devices that are often shipped to remote locations on passenger airliners.

The FAA said in its 2015 notice to airlines that “lithium batteries present a risk of both igniting and fueling fires in aircraft cargo/baggage compartments”. The ban only applies to their shipment on commercial flights.

The ban begins April 1 and is scheduled to remain in effect until 2018, when the ICAO hopes safer ways to ship the batteries by air have been figured out. ICAO’s 36-state governing council also reportedly approved an internal charge limit of 30 percent for each battery in shipments carried on cargo planes.

The testing showed that when the batteries are overheated they emit explosive gases, and when those gases ignite, the aircraft’s Halon fire suppression systems weren’t able to contain the blaze.

Airlines and pilot associations had requested the ban citing security reasons, the ICAO said. KLM, the Dutch airline, made a presentation to a lower-level ICAO panel arguing against a ban, according to an aviation official familiar with the presentation.

The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition that he not be named.

Battery industry officials had no immediate comment. Congress, reacting to the battery industry, told the FAA in 2012 that it could not impose any restriction on their shipment that exceeded the actions of ICAO. Since most evidence in crashes is destroyed by fire, that’s virtually impossible to do, critics of the provision say.