The presentation will provide an overview of lithium battery occurrence reporting in the UK and a perspective on how the UK CAA views the risk to the aviation sector. It will also provide insight into the issues that the CAA has identified in relation to the supply chain and what the CAA does to address the risks introduced by the supply chain. It will highlight and explain the initiatives that the CAA has taken over the last 6 years in a continuous approach to address the risks and provide a look into what the CAA perceives to be future actions that should be considered to assist the industry in managing the risks inherent to the transport of lithium batteries.

The talk also describes how Royal Mail as the UK Designated Postal Operator is working with their transport regulators to gain and maintain approvals and exemptions. Highlighting the risks in the transport of lithium batteries in the mail. What is permitted within the network internationally and domestically under the exemption from the regulators? The Royal Mail approach to reduce undeclared dangerous goods from being presented for mailing, detection via mail screening, education of customers via feedback, and what happens when it goes wrong.

The presentation further will also briefly summarise thermal runaway and thermal propagation before exploring the five main hazards of lithium-ion batteries: toxic gas, jet flame, unconfined vapour cloud explosion, and the two forms of confined vapour cloud explosion. Examples of all the hazards will be presented in the form of videos from the presenter’s research and elsewhere. The presentation will then briefly and critically explore the current methods of suppression.