Lithium Batteries Banned as Cargo on Passenger Planes by UN Agency

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.

While non-rechargeable lithium metal batteries have already been banned from cargo holds on passenger flights, the ban has now expanded to the rechargeable versions, like the ones found in cellphones, laptops and cameras.

The new packaging standard is expected by 2018, ICAO council president Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu said in a statement on Monday. 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.

Lithium-ion batteries can still be shipped on cargo aircraft.

The UN agency ruling will go into effect on April 1st.

Although the United Nations agency is calling its directive a ban, it doesn’t have any authority to enforce it. Instead, that will be up to aviation regulators in each country.

“When the industry banned the shipment of lithium-metal batteries, we saw instances of them being passed off as lithium ion batteries”, said the expert, who was not authorised to speak publicly.

But despite its threat to aviation vessels, airlines flying to and from the USA that carry 26 million passengers yearly still accept lithium battery shipments, the Federal Aviation Administration revealed. At least two deadly cargo jet crashes have been blamed on fires caused by these batteries. The International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations lobbied the ICAO council unsuccessfully to extend the ban to cargo carriers.

Video of a test by the Federal Aviation Administration shows the explosion of a cargo container packed with 5,000 rechargeable lithium ion batteries. 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.

Battery industry officials had no immediate comment.