ENHANCING LITHIUM BATTERY SAFETY IN THE SKIES
Background The Lithium Battery Air Safety Advisory Committee (LiBASAC) was established by Congress in 2018 to provide expert guidance on the safe transport of lithium batteries aboard aircraft. The committee aimed to facilitate communication concerning the safe transportation of lithium batteries by air among manufacturers of the batteries, manufacturers of lithium battery- powered products, air carriers, retailers, and the federal government. The committee, which formally began its work in 2019, was established to provide the Secretary of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) with information about lithium battery technology and transportation safety practices and methods. Another critical remit of LiBASAC was to provide Congress with recommendations to mitigate the risk of transporting batteries on aircraft.
The committee was notified to pause its activities on April 2, 2025. The LiBASAC charter expired on May 9, 2025, before the formal report to Congress was finalized and transmitted. In the absence of that final report, some of the non- government representatives from LiBASAC developed a summary of recommendations based on the unfinished draft that was close to completion and the discourse of the committee’s six years of work on the issue. The following recommendations are based on the work of LiBASAC; however, this report does not include official input of all the former members of the committee (for a list of the members of LiBASAC, please see appendix). It was developed by a subset of the committee that includes: LIST The report is further grounded in recommendations in publicly available data from the FAA and information from UL Standards & Engagement’s Thermal Runaway Incident Program (TRIP). TRIP is a voluntary reporting system designed for the aviation industry to better understand the extent of the problem and prepare for — or, ideally, prevent — future incidents. Participants from 37 passenger and cargo airlines
provide detailed information on incidents within their operation.
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator