The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has recently announced that its Governing Council is to introduce a new interim aviation safety measure prohibiting all shipments of lithium-ion batteries UN 3480, Package Instruction (PI) 965 as cargo on passenger aircraft meaning that airport operators, Known Consignors, Regulated Agents and any air cargo screening facilities must adhere to the new interim measures.
The decision is effective from April 2016 and is only for UN 3480, PI 965 lithium-ion batteries shipped as cargo on passenger aircraft, and not those in passengers or aircrew’s personal mobile phones, laptops or other electronic equipment. The interim measure comes after reviews by the ICAO Air Navigation Commission, and the UN agency’s Dangerous Goods, Flight Operations, and Airworthiness panels.
Pilots and aircraft manufacturers have sought measures to stop cargo containing lithium-ion batteries on passenger aircraft due to their possible volatility.
In readiness of the interim ban, the aviation training company Redline reports that it has been working on its dangerous goods threat image library within its ALERT2 6×6 x-ray screener on-line threat recognition training, to assist screeners in their ability to detect the presence of lithium-ion batteries.
Mark Rutherford, Redline’s Operations Director said: “the ICAO announcement emphasizes the real concern over lithium-ion batteries being carried as cargo on passenger aircraft. It is critical that x-ray screeners have the ability to recognise to stop potentially lethal lithium-ion batteries from entering the air network. Redline’s threat image recognition training is the most technically sophisticated package available today, supporting customers to develop their staff to detect real threat items concealed within not only cargo and mail, but in cabin and hold luggage to increase protection to real security threats. The addition of a lithium-ion training program is in direct response to this recent notification and customer demand”.
Using genuine x-ray images of real life threat items, the ALERT2 system features an image library and provides dual view images, using technology designed the developers say to avoid negative habit transfer. Visit http://www.trustredline.co.uk/.
