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Aviation Panel Urges Tougher Packaging Standards for Lithium Battery Shipments

An international group of industry and government experts has decided to begin developing tougher packaging standards for shipments of lithium batteries as cargo on commercial aircraft, according to people familiar with the details. 

Hammered out during a week-long meeting by an advisory group of experts to the International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of the United Nations, the move is an important but gradual step in the agency's effort to reduce fire hazards posed by cargo shipments of various types of lithium batteries on jetliners world-wide. 

The agreement on the need for more-robust packaging, these people said, indicates a consensus among battery makers, national regulators and airlines that further changes are essential to alleviate current risks from airline shipments of many hundreds of millions of lithium power cells annually.

The advisory panel, according to these people, didn't endorse banning or suspending certain battery shipments until revamped packaging standards are in place.

Announcements are expected in the next few days, according to people close to the matter. 

Safety experts and members of the advisory panel months ago advocated more-robust packaging for lithium batteries, including installing fire-retardant gels between batteries and reducing the maximum charge of bulk shipments of batteries placed on aircraft.

Drafting new packaging standards is likely to take months, and it is likely to take many more months for ICAO's policy makers to review and approve any binding changes. Still, this week's decision is the latest sign that momentum is accelerating for tighter rules affecting both air freighters and the cargo holds of passenger jets. 

Lithium batteries, packed tightly together, can overheat or catch fire if they are damaged or experience short circuits. They have been implicated in intense, quickly spreading fires that brought down two jumbo freighters-and ravaged another big cargo jet on the ground-during the past nine years.

Before this week's deliberations, plane makers joined pilot union leaders in arguing that existing jetliners weren't designed or built to withstand the high temperatures or explosive gases that also can result from fires involving lithium-ion power cells.

In recent months, some large international airlines have voluntarily restricted or completely stopped accepting bulk shipment of rechargeable lithium ion batteries, used to power laptops, mobile phones and myriad other consumer electronic devices. New packaging restrictions could end up imposing procedural changes and higher costs on a fast-growing global battery industry that churns out billions of cells annually and generates an estimated $12 billion in revenue from rechargeable batteries alone. 

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., a major transporter of lithium batteries coming from Chinese factories, last month decided to stop lithium battery shipments on all of its planes.

Europe's largest freight-only carrier, Cargolux Airlines International SA, said on Tuesday it would temporarily stop carrying some lithium batteries on its cargo jets amid a global review of such shipments.

The suspension of such shipments is slated to begin Friday. The ban on bulk shipments expands the type of lithium batteries Cargolux won't carry, though it doesn't cover some power cells packed with or used in equipment, the carrier said. 

"There's a long road ahead and a lot variables at play" before final standards can be put in place, according to Mark Rogers, who has been heading up efforts by international pilot unions to crack down on battery shipments. But he said the ICAO panel's decision was a major move to reduce in-flight hazards. 

Tim Canoll, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, North America's largest pilot union, said he was encouraged by ICAO's action because "packaging is an important piece in a multilayered approach."

"We look forward to participating in the work as ALPA pursues the goal of maintaining the safest possible air transportation system," Mr. Canoll added in the news release. 

The panel, composed of more than two dozen experts, didn't agree on specific fire-retardant technology or packaging details. Instead, a working group is supposed to come up with proposed standards by the fall covering transportation of both rechargeable lithium ion batteries and lithium metal versions that carry a one-time charge. 

In moving to authorize work on new safeguards, the panel set the safety bar fairly high by agreeing that any revised packaging must be fire-retardant enough to prevent the spread of flames or explosive gases to nearby packages or throughout cargo holds. Depending on how such "performance-based" standards are drafted, some experts have predicted that certain high-volume shippers may opt to halt airborne shipments altogether owing to cost considerations.

Besides gels, engineers and industry experts also have been working on filler materials intended to be placed inside packages that fuse together to prevent the spread of fires; the industry also has developed fire-resistant covers for cargo containers and various fire-suppression systems designed to keep flames or hot gases from spreading outside those containers.

Mr. Rogers, who has advocated more-aggressive steps including outlawing certain lithium battery shipments from all commercial aircraft, said the anticipated standard will clarify "how we can ship (such) explosives on commercial aircraft" while guaranteeing that fires can't spread outside individual packages.