For the past 6 months, IFALPA issued two positions and one briefing leaflet related to the issue of Dangerous Goods, more specifically Lithium Batteries.

In July, Boeing and Airbus issued a document to their respective customer airlines, both making reference to recommendations made previously by the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Association (ICCAIA) on the transportation of lithium batteries. They called operators to conduct a full risk assessment regarding the carriage of high quantities of lithium batteries.

These welcome announcements are consistent with BeCA’s and IFALPA’s longstanding position on the transport of lithium batteries. IFALPA/BeCA fully support the Airbus and Boeing recommendations and believes that they should be adhered to by ALL airlines until proper packaging standards and limits on quantity in packages are implemented.

For more information on the dangers of transportation of lithium batteries, you can refer to our previous Cockpit Flash article, as well as read Cockpit Flash article.

On 16 November, IFALPA published a position paper on the use of fireproof containment bags for portable electronic devices. They stress the issue linked to the process of getting the device into one of these bags and argue that “the provision of such bags is only justified if a safe solution to pick up burning devices has been demonstrated, adequate procedures are developed and appropriate training has been provided to all crew members.” They also remind about the effectiveness of cooling the device with large amount of water.

On 14 December, IFALPA called for the development of better situational awareness among passengers about lithium battery fire from devices they carry Some recent events have shown a serious deficiency in this respect.

Both position papers can be downloaded from their webpage.