Far too many passenger aircraft are not protected by AvSax lithium battery fire mitigation bags
Toxic smoke spirals through a passenger cabin during a lithium battery incident
A pilot with an AvSax lithium battery thermal bag
If aircraft cabin crew had a New Year’s resolution for 2024 the chances are most would want an AvSax lithium battery fire containment bag on board.
A story on Simple Flying aviation news website by air hostess Patricia Green, who has worked on aircraft from economy class to business jets, revealed what cabin crew want and need.
One of the items at the top of her list was a safety device to deal with the risk of lithium batteries overheating, burning or even exploding. Lithium batteries power all our everyday electronic devices such as mobile phones, iPads, laptops, vapes, e-cigarettes and power chargers.
Patricia wrote: “With the increasing number of personal devices that we now have containing lithium batteries it would be a good idea to have a fire containment bag on board every private jet.”
Many airlines worldwide now carry lithium battery fire containment bags to deal with mid-flight emergencies as the last place you want a lithium battery to catch fire is at 35,000ft, sending toxic smoke spiralling through the aircraft and potentially exploding, firing shards of metal and plastic in all directions.
When a lithium battery becomes faulty it goes into what’s known as thermal runaway and when this happens one cell in a battery can produce enough heat – up to 900°C (1652°F) – to cause adjacent cells to overheat. This can cause a lithium battery fire to flare repeatedly and they are then very difficult to put out and could even explode, seriously injuring passengers and crew and potentially causing catastrophic damage to an aircraft.
The smaller the aircraft, the greater the potential danger which is why all passenger planes down to the smallest two-seaters should have a thermal containment bag.
The best selling by far worldwide is the AvSax and more than 100 airlines worldwide now carry AvSax lithium battery mitigation bags on almost 17,000 passenger aircraft so they are ready to deal quickly and effectively with such incidents.
AvSax, which are made from military grade material, will contain the device even if it explodes.
They have been used in dozens of incidents and on every occasion the aircraft has been able to continue to its destination and land safely. Planes which don’t have lithium containment bags often have to divert and make emergency landings at the nearest airport, leaving passengers hundreds, if not thousands, of miles short of their destination.
An emergency landing and all the extra costs that involves from hotel bills and sorting our alternative transport for stranded passengers can run up a bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the airline.
AvSax are made by Environmental Defence Systems Ltd based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK, and AvSax won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its innovation, the highest accolade any business can get.
EDS managing director Richard Bailey said: “It’s clear from the feature Patricia wrote that cabin crew rate safety at the top of their wishlist, even on the most luxurious business class private jets.
“I’m sure that if cabin crew across the globe had a New Year’s resolution for 2024 then equipping their aircraft with AvSax lithium battery fire mitigation bags would be very high on it.”
To read Patricia’s story go to https://simpleflying.com/what-cabin-crew-really-want-onboard-business-jet/
