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This article is the eighth in a series on landmark events in aviation since Flight Safety Foundation was founded in 1945.
The proliferation in recent decades of devices powered by lithium-ion batteries has spurred a new wave of dangerous goods events in commercial aviation in which cell phones, laptops, power banks, and vaping devices can overheat, presenting risks to passengers, crews, and aircraft.
Some of these events have culminated in massive fires, including the Sept. 3, 2010, blaze that destroyed a UPS Boeing 747 freighter, which crashed near Dubai International Airport, and killed its two pilots — the only people in the airplane. Investigators said the “catastrophic uncontained fire” began in a cargo pallet containing lithium batteries and other combustible material.
More recently, on Jan. 28, 2025, an on-board fire forced the evacuation of 176 passengers and crew from an Air Busan Airbus A321 being prepared for takeoff from Gimhae International Airport in South Korea. The investigation was continuing, but news reports quoted South Korean transport officials as saying that the source of the blaze might have been a faulty power bank battery in baggage in an overhead luggage compartment. Three of the 176 occupants were seriously injured, and 24 others had minor injuries; the airplane was destroyed, South Korean accident investigators said in a preliminary report.
While lithium batteries have rarely touched off accidents like these, smaller-scale events occur frequently. UL Standards & Engagement (ULSE), an international standards organization, says 2024 data show that on average, two flights a week experience thermal runaway incidents — events involving an uncontrollable rise in battery temperature which, if not halted, can ignite fires.
“Lithium-ion battery fires burn with intense speed and heat, which can potentially cause significant and widespread damage within seconds,” ULSE says. “They can also be more challenging to extinguish compared to fires involving other materials.”
1956 Guidelines
The increasing frequency of such incidents has prompted the issuance of new guidance for the handling of lithium batteries — guidance that adds to decades of standards, the earliest of which were the Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGRs) developed in 1956 by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The DGRs were incorporated in 1984 into the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO’s) Annex 18, The Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air.
“Dangerous goods are carried regularly and routinely by air all over the world,” ICAO says. “To ensure that they do not put an aircraft and its occupants at risk, there are international standards that each state … is required to introduce into national legislation. This system ensures governmental control over the carriage of dangerous goods by air and gives worldwide harmonization of safety standards.”
Those regulations specify that any person offering a package of dangerous goods to be transported by air “shall ensure that the dangerous goods are not forbidden for transport by air and are properly classified, packed, marked, labelled, and accompanied by a properly executed dangerous goods transport document.”
In some cases, investigators have blamed accidents on a failure to comply with regulations.
‘Improper Carriage’
One such accident was the May 11, 1996, crash of a ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9, which was climbing out after departure from Miami International Airport when a crewmember screamed “fire, fire, fire” and the pilots told air traffic control they were returning to the airport. Scarcely three minutes later, the airplane crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 passengers and crew.
The crash was attributed to the improper carriage of dangerous goods — in this case, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the dangerous goods were one or more oxygen generators that had been improperly prepared, packaged, and identified, leading to a cargo compartment fire that brought down the airplane.
In its final report, the NTSB noted that Sabre Tech, ValuJet’s maintenance contractor, had failed to “properly prepare, package, and identify unexpended chemical oxygen generators before presenting them to ValuJet for carriage”; that ValuJet had failed to properly oversee the work; and that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had failed to adequately monitor ValuJet’s maintenance program and its oversight of contractors. In addition, the NTSB cited the FAA’s failure to require smoke-suppression and fire-detection systems in Class D cargo compartments, as well as the agency’s failure to adequately address potential hazards after previous chemical oxygen generator fires.
Oxygen generators are among scores of items subject to dangerous goods regulations in countries worldwide — a list that includes not only flammable liquids, radioactive materials, and explosives but also everyday items, including batteries, hand sanitizer, and, as the FAA points out, aerosol whipped cream.
“These products may seem harmless; however, when transported by air, they can be very dangerous,” the FAA says. “Vibrations, static electricity, temperature, and pressure variations can cause items to leak, generate toxic fumes, start a fire, or even explode if these products are not handled properly.”
About 1.25 million shipments of these and other dangerous goods are routinely transported by air every year, according to IATA, which predicts a significant increase in dangerous good shipments in coming years as air cargo growth increases.
Failed Evacuation
One of the earliest accidents involving dangerous goods was the Nov. 2, 1958, crash of an Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 cargo flight near Grakhovo, Russia. The Li-2 was transporting 150 glass bottles containing a solution of zinc nitrate. Some of the bottles broke during the flight, allowing the solution to contact the cargo bay heating system. The pilot attempted an emergency landing, but the impact broke additional glass bottles, and the airplane burst into flames. The crash killed all four crewmembers and destroyed the airplane.
Among the deadliest dangerous goods accidents was the Aug. 19, 1980, crash of a Saudi Arabian Airlines Lockheed L1011 TriStar 200. Seven minutes after departure from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, visual and aural warnings notified the pilots of smoke in the C-3 aft cargo compartment, and the crew returned to Riyadh, landed, and taxied onto a taxiway, where fire destroyed the airplane and killed all 301 passengers and crew, Saudi investigators said in their final report on the accident. The report said the blaze originated in the cargo compartment but did not identify a precise source; however, an FAA summary noted two butane stoves were found in the burned wreckage, with a used fire extinguisher near one of the stoves. The report cited as a contributing factor the captain’s failure to prepare the cabin crew to order an immediate evacuation after landing.
In a report offering brief descriptions of the Riyadh crash and 18 other dangerous goods accidents the FAA noted a number of substances that have figured in such accidents, including lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen peroxide, gasoline, dry ice, small containers of chemicals in checked baggage, and aviation fuel that leaked from a helicopter being transported in a freighter aircraft. In most cases, the substances had been packaged improperly.
‘Common Practice’
Since IATA’s issuance of DGRs in 1956, guidelines and regulations have been updated regularly, and today, compliance with standards and guidelines for handling dangerous goods “has become common practice,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh says.
Nevertheless, safe handling of dangerous goods also depends on how well passengers manage hazardous goods in both their checked baggage and in carry-ons.
In a June report dealing specifically with lithium-ion battery incidents on U.S. airlines, ULSE said its surveys showed “an alarming lack of awareness and concerning behavior” by U.S. airline passengers, about 40 percent of whom said they packed rechargeable devices in their checked baggage.
Vaping devices, carried by about 10 percent of passengers, were the leading cause of thermal runaway incidents, the report said, adding that, on average, two incidents are reported every week involving lithium-ion batteries, and nearly one in five incidents causes “significant passenger disruption” in the form of a diverted landing, return to gate, emergency evacuation, or unplanned deplaning.”
Half of the passengers surveyed said they knew nothing about lithium-ion batteries, and 60 percent were unaware that they powered many of their devices, ULSE said.
ULSE called for “clear, repeated, and contextualized education on the issue” to raise passenger awareness and cooperation, cabin crew training that allows for practice in real-world scenarios, and compliance with standards for baggage-handling.
“Partnerships across industry, government, and other stakeholder groups are necessary to inform and implement all three recommendations.” ULSE said. “Diverse perspectives and experience will bolster collective efforts and help drive impactful change.”
