Our Union: Catch Fire
By Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA President
The discovery of fire—or rather the controlled use of it—stands among the most momentous events in human history. From basic light at night, to heat, to cooking food, to igniting a fire in a combustion chamber to usher in the age of jet engines—learning to manage fire was an intellectual and technological breakthrough for humankind.
With its power comes danger, however, and fully controlling fire in every situation remains elusive—sometimes for reasons entirely within our control. Case in point is the recent overheating and bursting into flames of smartphones and other personal electronic devices. ALPA commends the FAA’s quick action to safeguard air transportation; but while lithium battery fires that occur inside the passenger cabin are serious, they can be detected almost immediately and dealt with quickly.
A far greater—and potentially catastrophic—danger to air transportation is posed by the fire risk from the shipment of lithium batteries and the shipment of “undeclared” dangerous goods. Whether due to the failure of lithium batteries or undeclared dangerous goods on board cargo aircraft, by the time a fire is detected the result can be catastrophic.
When asked during a keynote address at ALPA’s recent Board of Directors meeting to discuss the most likely cause of an airline accident in the future, NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart named the unsafe shipment of lithium batteries or shipments of undeclared dangerous goods as most “troubling.”
Our union’s drive to enhance the safety of transporting dangerous goods and hazardous materials is equally matched by ALPA’s efforts to eliminate the risk from undeclared dangerous goods shipments. While no official estimates exist for the number of undisclosed dangerous goods shipped by air, more than a thousand documented incidents occur each year that eventually expose the presence of undeclared dangerous goods.
ALPA, in accordance with our union’s strategic plan, is working to advance a four-part solution to safeguard air transportation from undeclared dangerous goods that is framed around public education and enforcing existing requirements, increasing packaging and inspection requirements, creating stiffer penalties, and strengthening international rules and guidelines. Already a serious hazard, the unsafe shipping of undeclared dangerous goods that could cause a fire on board all-cargo aircraft will only become more urgent in the future.
This issue of Air Line Pilot highlights major issues that our all-cargo pilots, and to some degree our passenger airline pilots, encounter while on the job. We present the challenges of today and tomorrow and couple them with thoughtful, appropriate science-based solutions that ALPA will continue to advocate for in the U.S. and Canada until there is truly one level of safety and security for all airline pilots, regardless of the equipment we fly or whether we’re flying passengers, cargo, or both.
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) acknowledges the value of airline pilots in his column: “More than any other state, Alaska understands the importance of air travel and shipping,” he writes. “As the Last Frontier, and one of the two states outside of the contiguous U.S., Alaska truly depends on your members to connect our people and fuel our economies.” His words go beyond mere praise—we’re essential to our countries’ economies. And our responsibilities go beyond just getting from Point A to Point B.
We’re ambassadors of safety. We’re the determined advocates of our profession. No matter the cause—safety, security, negotiating with our employers, contract enforcement, legislation or regulations that impact our profession—we pay keen attention, and we relentlessly engage.
The Roman writer Horace is quoted as saying, “It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.” This philosophy holds true for our union—we recognize that what affects one of us affects the entire membership, whether a safety threat or an industrial threat, and those threats to our profession that may appear far away in time or distance could quickly appear on our own flightpath.
