Another freighter aircraft carrying shipments of lithium batteries has caught fire and crashed,with both pilots missing, presumed dead.
The Asiana Airlines Boeing 747 cargo aircraft crashed early yesterday morning off the southerncoast of the Korean peninsula, en route from Seoul-Incheon to Shanghai’s Pudong airport, afterreporting the fire about an hour into the flight. Asiana Flight OZ991 disappeared from air trafficcontrol radars at 4:12 am, and the wreckage was found by the Coast Guard around two hourslater.
Crash investigators do not yet know the cause of the crash, and are still searching for theaircraft’s ‘black box’ flight recording equipment, but the Korean authorities are reported tosuspect that flammable material in the cargo hold of the aircraft caught fire.
An official from Korea’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said: “The captainspoke of a ‘cargo fire emergency’ in the last communication with the Shanghai control centre. Wepresume a fire broke out in the plane, which was carrying 400 kilogrammes of dangerous items,including lithium batteries, paint and liquefied amino acid, along with other goods likesemiconductors.”
He said it was unknown whether the aircraft exploded, adding: “If we find the black box, we’llbe able to see whether or not the automatic fire extinguisher in the cargo hold was working. Butfinding it may be impossible if it sank deep into the ocean.”
The crash is the first accident for South Korea’s second-largest airline in 18 years, since apassenger jet crashed in July 1993. “It is the first time for a Korean plane to crash due to afire,” the government official added. “Finding the cause may be more difficult than crashes frompilot error or problems with the aircraft.”
Investigators looking into the crash of UPS flight 006 in Dubai last October, in which bothcrewmembers died, are expected to file their final report later this year, but the preliminaryreport from the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority made multiple references to shipments ofdeclared and undeclared lithium-ion batteries carried by the aircraft. Following the crash, the USFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) also issued a new safety alert on the risks from carryinglithium batteries as cargo on aircraft.
Several incidents and laboratory tests have demonstrated that lithium-ion rechargeablebatteries, so prevalent in today’s electronic products and regularly carried by air cargo and airexpress operators, can ignite and burn furiously if mishandled or incorrectly packed or treated.New research published by the US last year underlined the potential for “thermal runaway” in a fireinvolving lithium batteries, and the difficulties of extinguishing one.
The Korean Times newspaper yesterday reported Asiana Airlines CEO Yoon Young-doo insisting thatthe airline complied with the necessary safety procedures. “We load and manage lithium batteriesaccording to the regulations set by the International Air Transport Association. The goods on thecargo plane were also managed according to the checklist and double-checked by the captain,” hesaid.
