ENHANCING LITHIUM BATTERY SAFETY IN THE SKIES
Lithium Battery Concerns
FAA data and independent studies show that there are now more than two thermal runaway incidents per week in the aviation ecosystem. Lithium batteries — if damaged, overcharged, mishandled, poorly manufactured or counterfeit — can enter a state of thermal runaway, a chemical reaction that generates extreme heat, fire, and even explosion. In the confined environment of an aircraft, thermal runaway events can be — and in very rare circumstances have been — catastrophic. While there has not been a commercial passenger flight that crashed from thermal runaway, there have been a few cargo aircraft. A call to action began in 2010 when UPS Airlines Flight 6 crashed near Dubai after cargo — which included more than 81,000 lithium batteries — caught fire in the cargo hold during flight. Additional factors exacerbated the situation, and the plane crashed, killing its two pilots, the only crew on board. More recently, several incidents on passenger jets have made the news. An Air France plane was recently forced to turn around mid-flight over the ocean after a passenger dropped a phone, a Hawaiian Air flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Tokyo, and a Southwest flight was forced to return to the gate in El Paso after a passenger’s phone caught fire.
In January, a power bank was suspected to have gone into thermal runaway, causing catastrophic damage to an Air Busan plane in South Korea. The power bank was compressed in the overhead bin and caught fire. The 169 passengers and seven crew members on board were able to escape, as the plane was awaiting takeoff when the fire broke out. The plane was a total loss.
There are now more than two thermal runaway incidents per week in the aviation ecosystem.
Lithium battery fires are particularly challenging due to their speed and intensity. They are also prone to reignite if not properly extinguished. These challenges are even more difficult to deal with in aviation due to factors including: If a fire occurs in the cabin, the confined space and the presence of many passengers make accessing the battery or device difficult. If a fire occurs in the cargo or baggage compartment, the crew's options to fight the fire are limited due to accessibility issues and inadequate extinguishing systems. 1
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