ICAO bans transport of lithium batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft

The 36-state International Civil Aviation Organization Governing Council has adopted a new policy, albeit a temporary one, which bans the transport of all lithium batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft until a better solution can be found for their safe packaging in transport.
Dr Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, ICAO Council President, has stressed that “Safety is always our most fundamental priority in international civil aviation. This interim prohibition will continue to be in force as separate work continues through ICAO on a new lithium battery packaging performance standard, currently expected by 2018.”
The Council’s decision will come into effect on April 1, 2016 and will relate only to lithium-ion batteries shipped as cargo on passenger aircraft, and not to those individually located in personal electronic devices carried by passengers or crew.
It comes subsequent to extensive reviews undertaken by the ICAO Air Navigation Commission, and the UN agency’s Dangerous Goods, Flight Operations, and Airworthiness panels. It also comes as a result of a number of fires on aircraft which have been attributed to lithium batteries, including UPS Airlines Flight 6 which crashed on September 3, 2010, flying between Dubai International Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport. The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) concluded in its final investigation report that the fire was caused by the autoignition of the contents of a cargo pallet, which contained “a significant number” of lithium type batteries and “other combustible materials.”
In addition, considerable speculation still surrounds the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which disappeared in March 2014 and which is understood to have been transporting a large consignment of batteries at the time.
The banning of Lithium-ion cargo shipments on passenger aircraft has been keenly anticipated by aircraft manufacturer and pilots’ associations, who have been the strongest proponents of this new, albeit temporary, measure.