Recently, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a final rule prohibiting battery-powered portable electronic smoking devices in checked baggage. In addition, the rule bans the charging of these devices (e.g., e-cigarettes, e-pipes, personal vaporizers, etc.) on board an aircraft.
ALPA has a long-standing vocal opposition to the carriage of the shipment of lithium batteries in the aircraft cargo hold unless there are adequate packaging standards in place to ensure they can be safely transported. While the PHMSA ruling is a step forward, we are not quite there yet. Work still needs to be done to establish universal requirements on packaging and limits on quantities in each package and in each container based on the mounting evidence that these types of batteries pose a safety risk.
According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, “Fire hazards in flight are particularly dangerous, and a number of recent incidents have shown that e-cigarettes in checked bags can catch fire during transport. Banning e-cigarettes from checked bags is a prudent and important safety measure.”
Click here for more information on the PHMSA ruling.