In debating whether to prohibit the carriage of lithium ion batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft, members of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO’s) Dangerous Goods Panel (DGP) discussed the necessity and ability of individual operators to assess and mitigate the potential risk of carrying the batteries, according to a report on the October DGP meeting, available on the ICAO website <icao.int>.
In this issue of ASW, we look more deeply into the lithium battery issue in commercial air transport and a recommendation made in late January by the ICAO Air Navigation Commission. But for now, I want to focus on the DGP meeting last fall. A report on the meeting said that DGP members who opposed a ban “believed it should be up to each operator to determine whether they could mitigate the risks to an acceptable level based on their own unique assessment.”
At least one supporter of the ban, according to the report, suggested that leaving it to the op…
