FAA issues safety advisory over lithium batteries following US cargo crash

LONDON - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US airline regulator, has warned that carrying shipments of lithium batteries on cargo flights may ignite fire if exposed to high heat.

According to the BBC, FAA said that the batteries, widely used in consumer products, could ignite in a fire, overwhelming suppression systems.

It also stated that a US cargo flight that crashed last month near Dubai carried a shipment of lithium batteries. However, it said that investigation of the crash is still underway, and the cause of the crash has not been determined as of now.

The warning, however, did not apply to batteries carried by passengers, FAA added.

“Common metal shipping containers, pails and drums, are not designed to withstand a lithium metal cell fire,” the agency warned in a statement, adding no containers have been tested or approved to mitigate the risk.

Bulk shipments of the batteries are already banned from passenger aircraft, the agency said. (ANI