The NTSB Rekindles Objections to Onboard Electronics
The world’s largest PC maker Dell is in the midst of one of the biggest safety recalls in the history of consumer electronics. Dell is recalling 4.1 million Sony-made laptop batteries after several dangerous incidents involving the lithium-ion batteries bursting into flames. The Dell initiative is likely to interest safety agencies that have been reviewing the dangers of battery packs used on many common electronic devices, from iPods to DVD players and cell phones.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board held a hearing in July about the safety of lithium batteries on aircraft after a fire last February on UPS1307, a DC-8 cargo- plane. The United Parcel Service plane was carrying bulk lithium-ion batteries when it caught fire just before landing safely in Philadelphia. The plane burnt out after landing.
On Aug. 7, 2004, a shipment of lithium batteries was involved in a fire at the Memphis, Tenn., hub of all-cargo carrier Federal Express. The carrier’s ramp personnel detected smoke coming out of a cargo container in the aft section of the incident aircraft. After the container had been removed from the aircraft and placed on the ramp, the container burst into flames (Air Safety Week, July 26, 2004 & Dec. 6, 2004 “The Lithium Battery Fire Hazard”). For the 2004 Inspector General’s report, see: http://www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/sc2005015.pdf As the report notes: “FAA has concerns that ….. standards for testing and packaging lithium batteries are not sufficient for their safe shipment by air.”
Recalling Earlier Incidents
Apart from security concerns post August 10 about carriage of all electronics, the use and carriage of laptop computers on airliners could now be banned entirely because of a mounting series of incidents involving inflammatory batteries. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recorded six onboard incidents in the past two years and 60 incidents overall since 1991 that involved laptops and other battery-powered devices. FAA Tech Center testing of lithium batteries began in 2004. In that year, a television news crew’s battery exploded aboard an aircraft carrying vice presidential candidate John Edwards, forcing the airplane to divert.
In a May 15, 2006 incident a passenger’s laptop burnt in an overhead locker as Lufthansa Flt 435 taxied for departure at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. It was pitched out a door onto the tarmac where it continued to burn.
Problems with overheating rechargeable batteries have led to recalls by other laptop manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard and Apple. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has documented 339 cases in which lithium and lithium-ion batteries overheated, began to smoke or exploded since 2003.
The danger to airlines first surfaced in 1999 and involved the original lithium battery (precursor of the LI-ion model). About 120,000 of those, stacked on two pallets, burst into flames at LAX airport, shortly after being unloaded from a passenger plane’s cargo hold. The batteries were then banned for carriage in passenger cargo.
However, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in its 2002 review of the Nov. 27, 1987 downing of Flt SA295, the SAA 747 Combi “Helderberg” off Mauritius, named lithium batteries as a suspect. At the time of the original crash inquiry, it was not appreciated to what extent lithium batteries in bulk were incendiary (i.e., could cause an accelerated fire).
If the FAA Tech Center is unable to now endorse the manufacturers’ claims of a new and safer design of Lithium ion battery and declares it to be HAZMAT, a whole generation of road-warrior businessmen will be leaving their beloved laptops at the office. They’ll then be looking to the airlines to provide business class keyboards and Internet access – and their firms to conjure up online Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to support their enroute info-addictions.?