Plane Crazy: Are lithium-ion batteries the next threat to airline safety?
Worried about a possible terrorist strike, American Airlines flight attendants confiscated 58 cellphones, lithium-ion batteries and charging devices from a passenger on a June 23 New York flight to Buenos Aires.
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Source: Plane Crazy: Are lithium-ion batteries the next threat to airline safety?
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When a lithium battery short-circuits or overheats, it can catch fire or explode. The fire it causes may not be as easy to extinguish as a normal combustion fire. FAA data show that from March 20, 1991, through Aug. 3, 2010, batteries and battery-powered devices were involved in 113 incidents with "smoke, fire, extreme heat or explosion" on passenger and cargo planes. The data are for lithium and non-lithium batteries and are not a complete list of such incidents, the agency says. In January, the Transportation Department proposed stricter rules for companies that ship lithium batteries in cargo holds. "The frequency of incidents, combined with the difficulty in extinguishing lithium-battery fires, warrants taking strong action," Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, said of the Transportation Department's proposal. Lithium-battery experts, security analysts and flight attendants wonder, though, if stricter rules are also needed in airline passenger cabins to prevent fires or worse: a possible attempt by a terrorist to bring down a plane by rigging a large number of batteries together to start a fire. Right now, there's no limit to how many small lithium-ion batteries a passenger can carry aboard a flight. Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Kristin Lee says the agency has studied the matter. She says the TSA, which oversees air security, determined that lithium-ion batteries for cellphones, laptops and cameras "cannot be used as an explosive and are not a security threat in personal carry-on quantities." But some scientists who have studied the batteries raise doubts about the safety of the ones passengers carry on board flights in their electronic devices, even those as small as those used to power cellphones. |
Source: Plane Crazy: Are lithium-ion batteries the next threat to airline safety?
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