NTSB ISSUES RECOMMENDATIONS TO BETTER DETECT AND SUPPRESS AIR CARGO FIRES

Nov. 28, 2012

WASHINGTON - The National Transportation Safety Board today issued three recommendations to reduce the impact of in-flight fires aboard cargo airplanes, saying current fire protection regulations are inadequate.

A link to the full text of the safety recommendations can be found here:

http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/recletters/2012/A-12-068-070.pdf

Lithium Batteries, Again

Four Shanghai courier firms had their licenses for air-freight services suspended over the weekend because they failed to report inflammable materials in their cargo, causing a small fire on a China Southern Airlines flight last week after it landed.

Full Shanghai Times article:

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/Metro/2012/11/26/Local%2Bcouriers%2Bsuspended/

Pax Notification Delay (49CFR175.25)

An Advisory Notice (No. 12-12), under Docket PHMSA-2009-0126, will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, November 21, 2012.  This document is now on public inspection (as of Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at 0845 EST)  The subject of this document is Compliance Date Extension for Air-Passenger Notification of Hazardous Material Restrictions.
In this advisory notice, PHMSA and FAA provide notification of our intent to extend the compliance date for certain 49 CFR 175.25 provisions adopted in a January 19, 2011 final rule (PHMSA-2009-0126; 76 FR 3308) by no less than one year beyond the current January 1, 2013 compliance date in a future rulemaking action.  This notice is intended to provide the widest dissemination of our planned future action to all potentially affected parties and to allow for development of a collaborative approach to implementing air-passenger notifications between interested government, commercial, and private entities.
If you would like to view this advisory notice, it will be available on November 21, 2012 at the following URL: https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/pipeline-and-hazardous-materials-safety-administration
(summary courtesy of FAA/PHMSA Public Meeting Follow-up)

Many unaware of battery restrictions on flights: CAA (Taipei)

Article on Lithium Batteries (Taipei Times)