FoxHunter

At FDX we received notice of a cockpit fire on the ground. The crew member flashlight burst into flames in his back pack. The flashlight was using Lithium batteries bought in China. It would be wise to properly dispose of any of these good deals.

Huck

Timely advice, sadly....

ANCFRTDG

Thanks for the heads up on the Chinese Li batteries. Another product from the land of not quite right!!

HireAstarPilots

The culprit is a 3 volt battery called a CR123.

About 6 months ago, I removed a flashlight powered by these from my back-pack and took it to the battery recycling at Home Depot. Most Home Depots will take any battery you have and not ask any questions.

There is a video on YouTube about a 3 Volt CR123 powered flashlight exploding and blowing a hole through the aluminum section of a sliding door to a patio- the metal had been blown away! When these go up, they go up like a shotgun shell going off.

Here's a video of a CR123 being squeezed. Nothing more than being squeezed in vice-grips.

[And we let these things on our airplane-!]

video: YouTube - CR123A Lithium Battery Fire

Grumble

Any chance I can get a copy of that from you? We've recently gone to Li Ion bats in our NVG's... this makes me nervous.

The Walrus

We use lithium batteries in our on board company computers. The culprit seems to be the cheap chinese batteries. As long as you are using name brand batteries you are probably ok.

HSLD

Halon extinguishes the flames, water cools the battery

Jetjok

Here's a copy of that FCIF.


Lithium Battery
FCIF XX-XXX (Vital)

Issued: 08/30/10 1843z
Source: J.P.
Suspense: 10/31/10
Approved: XXXXXXXXX

Last weekend we experienced a lithium battery event. The battery
essentially spontaneously erupted into flames. While the investigation is
ongoing, I would like to make you aware of some disturbing similarities we
have seen in all the events that I am aware.

First, this battery was not properly packaged for shipment. In this
event the battery was inside a personal flashlight inside a personal
backpack.

Second, the malfunctioning battery was NOT a name brand produced or
purchased within the USA. It was one produced and procured in China.

Third, these fires are NOT successfully dealt with by Halon (the
agent in our fire extinguishing systems on board our aircraft). It was
fortunate that a full (or nearly full) water bottle was next to the
flashlight so that when the battery went high order and erupted into flames
the plastic water bottle was compromised and the water was then dumped onto
the burning flashlight (the Halon was effective at containing the burning
backpack).

The Lithium (or high energy) battery issue is not going away. We
all carry them in our cell phones, IPhones, Blackberries, laptops…it is
almost scary. We have them in the PATs/APLC devices on board the aircraft.
Banning them would be problematic to say the least. In the case of the on
board devices we have implemented a program to swap the batteries out at
predetermined intervals and to date we have not had an event related to our
onboard devices.

In the meantime as we work to develop a PED (personal electronic
device) policy please consider the carriage and usage of cheapo batteries
obtained in China as a really dangerous idea. While this battery went high
order on the jumpseat while still on the ground, it could have done so in
the crew baggage area 500nm from SYA, or in the trunk of his car, or at
home in the garage, or in the bedroom…

More when we get it. Thanks-

Grumble

Fox, sorry inbox was full.

Avroman

Until we in this country learn the lesson that Chineese quality amounts to "as long as we can get it on the boat" mentality and cheaper isn't always better especially when we aren't supporting our OWN manufacturing jobs. we are in for this type of crap more and more.