lithium fire on Fiji. Airline plane

[AussieJester]

Thought this might be of interest, posted on Perth Now''
"Meanwhile, in another ATSB report released today, smoke billowing from the cargo hold of a Fiji Airways plane prior to takeoff prompted a Mayday call at Melbourne Airport on April 26.

Aerodrome rescue and firefighting service and Australian Federal Police were called, identifying the cause as an electrical short circuit in more than two dozen lithium-ion polymer batteries contained in a passenger’s luggage.

Fiji Airways has since issued a warning that any passenger found to be carrying undeclared lithium batteries will be offloaded and refused carriage."


KiM

[Samd]

"Offloaded". Bloody hell.

Thats a lot of LiPO.

[zombiess]

Thats a lot of LiPO.

How much is it? They could be coin cells, they aren't giving any information other than 24, 24 batteries of what? Hearing aid, car battery sized?

[Drone Cops]

@zombiess. You nailed it exactly. The report was simply batteries and not specifically Li-Po batteries so a play on words on the investigators/reporters behalf. They could have been small 5V batteries for hearing aids, to AAA batteries to dry cells which are allowed to be carried and commonly used in transmitters.

Secondly, how the heck can this ever get through International security screening if this is what they allege. All sounds a bit wierd and ambiguos to me...

[dnmun]

i doubt if coin cells would have caused smoke. it does show a lack of sense on the part of the smuggler since he could have packed more carefully and if he had just discharged the packs before boarding they could not have generated enuff heat to make smoke.

of course it woulda helped if the baggage was handled gently.

[Ykick]

I've been reading and studying air travel with RC Lipo batteries in the USA. Apparently, many RC enthusiasts often do this and if declared (placed on conveyor for X-ray) from carry-on luggage and any leads carefully insulated/protected TSA generally allows them.

Many airline pilots happen to be RC aero enthusiasts so it's not that uncommon of item to fly with in carry-on bag.

There used to be a limit around 300Wh of loose lithium cells but I no longer see that on TSA.gov and reading RC boards many folks haul much more than that amount to field events and competitions.

I need to get a folder going and try it for my frequent east-west commutes. I'd love to ride an ebike from SAN to my home - talk about mixed-mode commute!

[Rodney64]

Aussiejester I thought you were giving up bikes and going into guns

[dnmun]

i still think it is good practise to discharge the pack before shipping or including it in luggage. it is not hard to discharge a battery pack and in fact the lipo should be left discharged until it is needed and then charged up so to carry fully charged lipo on a plane is just plane wrong imo.

[wesnewell]

That depends on what you mean by discharged. Discharged to nominal voltage would be ok, but it's recommend to ship at store voltage, ~3.85V. That's how new packs are shipped.

[amberwolf]

There's a lot of assumptions above: To be fair, it doesn't say whether the batteries *were* RC LiPo (or any other similar type), nor does it say what the charge state was. (unlikely that they will ever know).

[AussieJester]

Am/have Rodney, got my second rifle yesterday as a matter of fact Howa.243.. I have also bought a 250cc quad bike I been out in the Bush on with two of my close motox riding buddies, that's more fun than any e-bike I have had however, I do intend in the future to resume with electrics in some capacity, thus I will remain active on ES as I have said all along...


KiM

[MexicanBatman]

There's a lot of assumptions above: To be fair, it doesn't say whether the batteries *were* RC LiPo (or any other similar type), nor does it say what the charge state was. (unlikely that they will ever know).

The report is in the link below
http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5092912/ao ... _final.pdf


It was all rc gear

I was off that night sadly but a friend was working, it was interesting there were 7 fire trucks etc... LOL


http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5092912/ao ... _final.pdf

[wesnewell]

What an idiot. Looks like he just threw everything in the case and shut it. Note the cables still plugged into the chargers.