Lithium batteries - unpacking the risks

Voiceover: 00:17

Welcome to the CAA Safety Files podcast.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 00:28

Hello and welcome to the Safety Files podcast from the UK Civil Aviation Authority. I'm Nathan Lovett from the CAA Communications team, and in this series, we look at occurrence, incident or accident reports that have been published throughout the different areas of the UK aviation industry. We cover a different report in each episode and hear from aviation experts to find out what can be learned from it.

In this episode, we're looking at a very important area that can impact the safety of any flight, and that's the transport of lithium batteries. Now lithium batteries are used to power many of the devices that passengers bring aboard, but if they're not handled safely and transported correctly, they can pose serious safety risks. Additionally, if lithium batteries are improperly or inadvertently loaded into the aircraft hold when they shouldn't be, then there's a higher risk of a more serious incident occurring.

We're going to hear from some aviation experts about the regulation in this area, along with the best practices that can help ensure that lithium batteries, including power banks and battery powered items, are transported safely. We'll also speak with one of the UK's major airlines about the processes they have in place across their network to manage this risk. We'll cover what this means if you're working at check, in the boarding gate, on the ramp or in cargo, and also hear what passengers themselves can do to help airlines and contribute to the safety of other passengers and the flight when they travel.

So to get things started and help explain the risks relating to lithium batteries, I'm joined by Mario Ranito, who is one of the Dangerous Goods policy specialists here at the UK CAA, Mario is involved in the writing of international regulations for the transport of Dangerous Goods and the provisions for passengers and crew in terms of what they can carry in their checked and cabin baggage. He's previously worked for the CAA as a Dangerous Goods Inspecting Officer, where he was responsible for auditing handling agents and airport operators around compliance with the regulations relating to the transporting of Dangerous Goods. He's also held senior roles in the aviation industry, where he worked for an operator as the nominated person for ground operations and was responsible for the management of the approval to carry dangerous goods that was given to that operator. He began his aviation career in the military and flew in the Portuguese Air Force for 22 years. Mario, thank you very much for taking the time out to do this. You have years of experience in this area. So can we start please with your perspective on passengers traveling with items containing lithium batteries. What are the challenges here?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 02:53

So, we have to think that the current regulatory framework that is based on the trust that people comply with all aspects of the regulation. And there is a certification, various levels of certification, where people sign for the responsibility of specific tasks to comply with the regulation. The regulation, as stated, are safety regulations that ensure that wherever dangerous goods are transported, they are transported safely.

Now, whilst the carriage of lithium batteries as cargo have specific provisions with regards to packaging and quantities and things like that, when we think about what passengers can take on board an aircraft, the possibility of making a passenger comply with a specific number of requirements like packaging or quantities limitations becomes impractical because lithium batteries are generalized in any device that we can buy today, for us to consume as a product and for our personal use, they range across an insurmountable amount of devices which we have normal access to, and of course, just out of sheer comfort, we all want to take these devices which are beneficial for our personal lives whenever we travel.

So with regards to the lithium batteries carried by passengers, there are set of provisions which passengers are required to comply with, but there is an element of responsibilities from the industry that is transporting them to make sure that they are aware of what they are carrying and how they should be carried.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 03:02

Before we look at the specific risks, please can you describe some of the types of devices that contain lithium batteries that we're seeing passengers travel with?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 04:37

Sure, the types of devices that contain lithium batteries can be anything from an ear pod, a mobile phone, an iPad or a Kindle type device. We've seen all sorts of different devices, which we call portable electronic devices in the regulation which contain lithium batteries, like trainers with lights, for example, that are powered by. Lithium metal batteries. We have seen bags to be carried in the hole, which have electric powered wheels and are powered by an electric battery. And you could see children on top of them, sitting on top of them and moving around the airport. So, you know, the variety of devices that today may contain a lithium battery, a rechargeable lithium battery, or a lithium metal battery, which is a non-rechargeable battery. The vastness of the use of lithium batteries is very large. Today is very large quantities. I would probably say that any device which is electrically powered will probably contain a lithium battery of some sort, because it's an autonomous device. It won't be connected permanently to a power socket, so it is the natural thing today is everything has a lithium battery attached.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 05:53

Can you tell us about the associated risks and challenges this presents for airlines and the aviation industry as a whole?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 05:59

Yep, I think there are various challenges. Inherently, lithium batteries, by design and manufacturing, are considered to be safe in general, but because of the high amounts of energy that they can store, it is possible that in some circumstances, they can catch fire, and due to the high temperatures that they generate, it can go into thermal runaway. Thermal runaway could happen due to lack of quality in the manufacturing process, if they are not treated with CAA or damaged by the owner of the electronic device, if they are abused with regards to charging, misuse of charging devices, or if they have a manufacturing default. For example, the problem with the thermal runaway aspects of lithium batteries is when a lithium battery goes into thermal runway, it's difficult to extinguish the fire that it produces, and it can only be put out properly by reducing the temperature of the device it's powering. Another cause of the fire could be a damaged device. For example, as I mentioned previously, you could drop your phone or any other device that you are carrying, and despite there not being an apparent damage to the device itself, you never know what's happened inside the device or what's happened to the battery, and internal damage may have occurred with the dropping of that device, which could affect the battery.

So when you're considering the transport of lithium batteries as cargo, for example, in an aircraft, we have stringent regulations around the transport, the training that people need to have to package and to prepare them for transport and how they are loaded into the aircraft, and also with regards to marking labeling, so that everyone is aware of their presence and knows what's being carried, where in the aircraft, when it comes to the passenger and what they normally take on board an aircraft when they travel, we know that everyone wants to carry as Many automobile drawn devices as possible for personal convenience when they are traveling. The regulations have been written to make sure that whatever could pose hazard is carried in the cabin, because there you have trained people to deal with any situation that could arise when these devices go into thermal runaway, for example, if they inadvertently go into bag that is loaded into the car compartment. We could have an issue when associated with other flammable materials, which could enhance the effects of a fire by a small battery. It's therefore a question of having the right mitigation measures in place to solve a hazardous situation if it should arise.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 08:40

You mentioned there the importance of these items going into the cabin rather than the aircraft hold and, in this series, we try to include details of actual incidents that have happened in the UK aviation industry, which can help highlight the safety risks that we're talking about. Now you've experienced a situation when flying outside of work and traveling as a passenger, that helps show what can happen if the procedures around lithium batteries aren't followed. Can you tell us about that?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 09:04

Sure. So as you mentioned, I travel quite a bit outside of work for personal reasons, and on one occasion, I was in a queue to board a flight, and the queue was quite long, and we were approaching the scheduled departure time of the flight, and I noticed that the agent at the boarding gate was tagging bags that were supposedly cabin baggage being tagged to be then put in the hold. Now the procedure is that the bag be tagged at the boarding gate and then you would go down into the apron area and leave the bag for one of the agents outside to then put it in a trolley and load it onto the aircraft. And I noticed that the agent wasn't asking specific questions. The regulation is very specific in this aspect, that if you are removing baggage from a passenger that was supposed to go into. Cabin and is now going into the car compartment. Specific questions have to be asked so that the passengers understand that they need to take certain items from their bag to carry it with them in the cabin, rather than allowing it to go into the hold.

So, I approached the agent I identified myself despite traveling for personal reasons, because my perception is there is a safety issue going on here, and we need to address that. And I explained to her that she wasn't complying with her responsibilities and that there was a need for questions to be asked to passengers about what they were carrying in the bag and identifying anything that would probably need to be taken out of the bag, to be carried in the cabin. And the response was, well, the flight is already delayed, and so I can't do anything about it. And I again reminded that, you know, there are questions such as you need to ask if people are carrying power banks, spare lithium batteries or E cigarettes, and you're not asking the questions. And she said, well, I've told you I can't do anything about it because the flight is already delayed, and I just need to get these passengers on board. And there was a lady behind me who said, what do you mean e cigarettes? Why e cigarettes? Are you meaning to save vapes and stuff like that? And I said, Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. That's one of the items that need to be removed. And she said, well, I have two of them in my bag. So, I said, well, could you please remove them from your bag before you go? And then I turned to the agent, and I said, Look, if you're not going to do anything about this, I'm going to approach the crew and ask them to resolve the issue. And she said, Fine, you do whatever you want. Okay? So, I walked onto the aircraft. I spoke to the captain, I explained what had happened, and he immediately said, thank you very much for highlighting this. To me, we will not depart until we've made sure that all bags that have been removed from passengers do not contain any prohibited items.

So, everybody boarded, and at the end of the boarding, the cabin manager called all the passengers up to the front whose bag had been removed, and one of the passengers said, Actually, I have a power bank in my suitcase that's in the hole. So, they had to go and get the bag from the hole, bring it up so the passenger could open the bag, remove the power bank, close it again, go back into the hole. And that whole process ended up delaying the flight for about 55 minutes. I have to take my hat off to the expediency of the ground handling agents who found the bag very quickly, because there are instances with this could be much larger delay to the flight. But it was funny to see that with all my involvement in all of this, there were people on the flight who were aware of my intervention, and before the flight departed, I had several people turn to me and say, thanks for doing a job. So it was kind of gratifying in the sense that, you know, I didn't feel that all of the safety aspects were being complied with, and the crew were completely unaware of what was happening at the gate, and I was kind of the only person around who was actually aware of what was going on. And I felt that I needed to raise the issue, because you never know how many of those devices could be inside the bag, and if we could have had a problem.

Voiceover: 13:20

You're listening to the CAA Safety Files.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 13:28

Thanks to Mario Ranito there, one of the Dangerous Goods policy specialists here at the CAA we're going to be hearing more from him later, but we're now going to look at how airlines are managing this risk of lithium batteries and responding to the challenge of the increasing number of devices and items that are powered by them. Here to help me ask the questions, is another member of the CAA Dangerous Goods team, Bodhi. Badet. Bodhi is a dangerous goods officer whose role covers monitoring the continued compliance and safety performance of fixed wing and helicopter operators, ground handling agents, freight forwarders, shipping and dangerous goods training providers through a program of audits and inspections against the national and international Dangerous Goods regulations. He has extensive experience working in the aviation industry, which includes ground handling roles for some of the UK's major airlines and aircraft handling agents. I mentioned that we're going to look at lithium batteries from the airline's point of view, and we're really pleased to be joined by two staff from easyJet who are going to help explain everything from their perspective. Nick Pelham is the ground operations quality and safety manager for easyJet and has network responsibility for the oversight of safety risk readiness and compliance. Also with us is quality and safety specialist Callum Hutchinson. He works with Nick on delivering safety policy across the easyJet Network. Welcome to all of you, and thanks for doing this. Can we start please with that incident that we've just heard described by Mario Ranito. Nick, have you seen that type of situation in your career and what processes are in place to mitigate it?

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 14:54

So yes, we have. We've seen a number of kind of like incidents whereby bags have been. And removed from the cabin to be loaded in the hold where the Dangerous Goods questions have not been asked by our ground handling agents. That was a risk that we'd identified through the assurance checks that we'd completed, through audits that had been completed, and we also received feedback from external parties as well to that effect, and what that did was it prompted us to begin taking action about how do we go about managing that risk? And there was a number of things that we did. We saw a spike in events, and we designed a campaign about, how do we raise awareness about the things that people should be carrying on the person that shouldn't be going into the hold of the aircraft. So, we developed a campaign called please, which we launched with our handling agents across the network. And I suppose that was the start of our journey really, on how do we do better safety promotion about the risk of Dangerous Goods that passengers may carry?

I think one of the things is that passengers don't recognize the things that we see as dangerous goods, as something that's potentially dangerous, because they're carrying everyday items and they don't see the risk associated with carrying those so we had to do an awareness campaign around that, and we needed to make sure that our handling agents were fully cognizant of the risks of not asking those questions of our passengers when they were traveling. So, we did a huge amount of work on the back of the observations that we'd seen, and I think we've had really positive outcome on that as well. We changed our cabin baggage policy, and when we make the change to the policy, there was a number of reasons behind that, but one of the things that we were incredibly clear about at the time was that if we can reduce the number of bags that are being offloaded from the cabin to the hold of the aircraft, then on the premise that risk is determined not only by the severity of events, but the frequency of times that we actually see them as well. Just by reducing the number of the bags that were going into the cabin into the hold of the aircraft, we reduce our risk exposure for that as well.

So, by clearly stipulating effectively, how many bags we can take into the cabin, we're reducing the number of bags that were being offloaded from the aircraft to the hold as well. So, we reduce our risk exposure significantly as a result of that change in policy.

Bodhi Burdett (UK CAA): 17:06

Nick, can you talk to us about 'PLEASE'? You mentioned an acronym before 'PLEASE', and you give us more information. What do you mean when you say 'PLEASE'?

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 17:13

So yeah, we have the 'PLEASE' acronym, and really simply, that acts as a prompt for our ground crew to make sure that we've not got items going in the hold of the aircraft that shouldn't be that means for P, passports, travel documents and valuable items. We don't want to be in a situation where we have to retrieve those from the hold of the aircraft because it impacts our operational performance. Light, as in matches, is L, E is for essential medication. Again, if passengers are going to be self-treating on board the aircraft, they can't do that if those items are in the hold of the airplane. So, we want to make sure that those items come out of the baggage. A is for any heat producing items such as diving lamps and soldering irons. S is for spare or loose lithium batteries, including power banks, because power banks are, of course, a lithium battery. Not everybody recognizes that, so that's quite important. And then finally, E is for Electronic Smoking Devices. We've had a couple of really high-profile events now relating to electronic smoking devices, and that's really, really important to us as well. So, we called that out separately in the acronym that we use.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 18:22

We're seeing lithium batteries used in more and more items and devices that passengers are traveling with. For example, some types of prams or buggies now contain lithium batteries. So, it's an evolving challenge, with new products coming to market that are powered by these batteries. Callum, how do operators like easyJet stay on top of that and manage that risk?

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 18:39

I think it's a mixture of talking to other airlines and collaborating around the aviation network, not just in the UK, but in Europe. Also, our ground handlers, they provide really important information to us, what they see on a day-to-day basis as well, and what they're having to feed into our integrated Operations Control Center. It sits within our sag cycle called the dangerous, good steering group, where any of these items we bring into that meeting for discussion and decide on what action we wish to take as an operator.

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 19:08

I think with anything there's like, there's multiple intelligence sources, isn't there? So, I think that's one of the things that we are quite proud of, that when we think about risk as a system, it's not just safety reports that we get that inform us, kind of like what our risk exposure is. We're looking at all different kinds of information and intelligence that come in to us that we can say, right? Actually, do we need to consider this? And we then try and take the appropriate steps to manage that. But we're seeing an increase in prevalence in things becoming electronic.

So, we see things like e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards, e-prams, e-buggies, anything now that has wheels, has the potential. It seems to be made kind of like electronic in some sort of way. And we've taken a very particular approach at easyJet in the way that we manage that, because what we would rather do as an organisation is manage known risks as opposed to unknown risks. So. Seen some stuff from other operators where specific items have been banned from carriage, and I kind of understand the logic behind that, because of the risk that it can present, but the view that we've taken, certainly from a ground operations perspective, at easyJet, is that we'd rather know what it was that was being carried in our airplanes, because then we can manage the risks associated with that. And if we ban stuff from being carried, there's a serious risk there that the passengers are going to carry them without declaring the fact that they're in the hold of the aircraft. So sometimes it's better the devil, you know, in that situation.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 20:33

So, this is a podcast for people working in the aviation industry. It's aimed at staff working on the ground in a range of different roles, who are working with passengers and their luggage. So, we thought we'd approach the safety guidance and the way that you work at easyJet by looking at it in context across each stage of the passenger journey. So, when do passengers first come in contact with your guidance about dangerous goods?

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 20:53

It starts from the moment that they book, actually, because they have to agree to our terms of conditions of carriage, and in the terms of conditions of carriage, it does link to the Dangerous Goods pages on the website. So, it starts the moment they've gone on easter.com and books their flight or holiday. And then when they go to check in online, whether it's via the app or via the website, they will be linked to the Dangerous Goods page as well, and also a really brief dangerous good sign will pop up that they have to confirm that they've not carried any items of Dangerous Goods in their bags. So that's the first thing in terms of checking and they arrive at the airport, and we do have our pack safely signs on all of the desks, which we've rebranded and revamped to simplify the signage so it's super simple for everybody to understand what items can and can't be carried on our aircraft. We also have two types of check ins. We've got our self-service backdrop machines, and we also have our traditional check in desks at various airports and on the kiosks. We do have floor walkers walking around in orange delays, and they're available to help the customers, should they have any questions or not understand the material that's displayed to them. So, we've got plenty of staff there that can support and then at the boarding gates as well. We have the pack safety signs, and we also have cabin bag offload cards as well, which asks the please question in all of the different languages that we have operating bases. So, it's really simple for the customers to read in their local language, to understand what needs to come out of that bag before we send it into the hold.

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 22:22

They act as a prompt as well for our ground crew don't they in the fact that actually they have a huge amount of information that they need to retain, and we recognize that it's not always possible for them to do that. So, by putting the prompt on things like the pack safely signage, which we put in as many places as we can in our operation on the back of the tags that we issue as well. There's no risk of the ground crew being able to forget what it is that they should be asking, because they can refer to things that are readily available to them. And having that information on the tag is absolutely brilliant, because it doesn't matter where you are at that moment in time when you're putting that tag on that bag, the information is there for you to ask the question,

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 23:02

Yeah, and it's also there on the tear off as well. So, the customer also gets a copy of that. So, if they do get on the plane and go, I've forgotten to declare it and they see their tag on the back of the passport, it also acts as a reminder there as well.

Bodhi Burdett (UK CAA): 23:14

So, Callum, once the passengers have gone through passport control and through the duty free, the passengers go to the boarding gate. What happens at the boarding gate?

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 23:24

So, at the boarding gate, customers are checked for cabin baggage compliance. Any oversized cabin bags will be placed into the aircraft hold and the dangerous goods. Questions, of course, are asked before the items are placed into the hold. To support that questioning, we have a cabin bag offload card, which is within all of our gate packs. So, it's something at the fingertips of our colleagues, like the boarding gates, that they can use to help guide those questions. It's also translated into most European languages as well, so if there are translation issues, they can refer the customer to read it in their own local language,

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 24:01

I think as well, on that point, we may see oversized bags at the aircraft size, at the aircraft side, sorry that we need to offload. The change in our cabin baggage policy means now that we shouldn't reach a situation whereby the overhead lockers on the aircraft become full. But that situation may still occur, sometimes dependent on whether or not our customers have put coats or small rucksacks in the overhead lockers, and we try to manage that on board. But where we do have a situation that we need to offload a bag because the overhead lockers are full and that needs to go into the hold of the aircraft, that same information is available to our cabin crew so that they can ask the same questions to make sure that we get in the information that we need to make sure that it's suitable for that bag to go in the hold of the aircraft. And if we need to take action to remove items, for example, we can take that action as well. So, it links, not just through procedures that we have at boarding gates, but also there's synergies there between what we do on board the aircraft.

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 24:58

We've also got a Quick Reference Guide available to our staff, not just ground staff. It's accessible on the iPads for our cabin crew and our pilots. It's also in our Operations Control Center, so every touch point of the customer journey has access to this quick reference guide, and it is a really simple version of the Dangerous Goods requirements, but for items that we expect to see on a day-to-day basis. So instead of having to quickly flick through a manual and through a big document, it's a 10-page document where our staff can refer to the requirements as quickly as possible, and it tells them if it can be carried and any requirements for that specific item.

Bodhi Burdett (UK CAA): 25:36

So once the passengers have gone on to the aircraft, if any bags need to then be offloaded because there isn't enough space. What happens then in that situation?

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 25:48

Well, firstly, we've got a requirement to get the bag out the cabin and to get it into the hold of the airplane, but there'll be an interaction at that point between our cabin crew and the customer where we'll make sure that the questions relating to things that shouldn't be carried in the hold are asked of the customer. So, in that scenario, the crew keeper stock attacks on board the aircraft. And those tags are the same ones that we talked about before. They've got all the information on the back of the tag, which indicates these are the items that shouldn't be going in the hold of the airplane. So, they use that as a prompt, and then they've got the card on board the aircraft as well to aid in that process. So, the crew are responsibly in that situation for asking the questions to make sure that, yeah, we're not putting stuff in the hold of the aircraft that we shouldn't be doing.

Bodhi Burdett (UK CAA): 26:33

When that occurs. Obviously, there's a potential jeopardy of the flight going out late, if the flight is going to go out late because bags are going to be offloaded, does that present a commercial risk?

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 26:45

So, I think it presents an operational risk to us. But then there's risk associated with everything that we do, and you've got to balance out how we manage and deal with those risks. And we've got an underlying principle of everything that we do at easyJet, that safety is our number one priority, and where we see that we've got to do something to make sure that we don't jeopardize the safety of our operation, then we do that because we'd much rather write the report for a delay of an aircraft than the report for something that went seriously wrong as a result of us not following the procedures that we've designed and implemented to make sure that our operations remain safe, and that's supported by everybody within the business. It goes right from the top down, and we make sure that we get out and promote that message all the way to the people that are working on the front line. And it's really important that we do that, and where people make good decisions on a safety basis, we don't punish that because a flight went out late. We actually celebrate it through the work that we do. And we do a number of things within the ground up safety arena, from good spots, where we encourage people to write in and tell us about we stopped this event from occurring, and we recognize that through the work that we did.

Bodhi Burdett (UK CAA): 27:59

If the flight is going to go out late, or there's a risk of it going out late, obviously, there's other mechanisms that have to take place as a consequence of that. Have you implemented a delay code or anything like,

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 28:09

Yeah, we have. So, we've got an easyJet specific delay code, which is delay code 10, and that is apportioned when we've taken a delay to departure. That's the result of us offloading cabin bags from the cabin to the hold of the aircraft. And actually, when we looked at the way our old cabin baggage policy was working, we were seeing a huge amount of delays, where we were seeing 20, 3040, bags on some flights that were having to be kind of like tagged, and we talked earlier on about kind of like the risk associated with that because of the amount of pressure that it puts on people, because they're conscious that they want to get the flight out as quickly as they can, and when they've got to ask all those questions relating to the huge amount of bags that we were offloading, it created a scenario where there was a lot of risk presence, so we wanted to manage that, and we could see through our stats that actually code 10 was causing a significant impact to the punctuality of our operations, and that was one of the principal drivers of the change to the cabin baggage policy that we made there. So, we looked at that as a whole, and then that allowed us to make the changes to the policy where we could recognize as well, that if we can reduce the number of occurrences where this is happening, we reduce our risk exposure.

Bodhi Burdett (UK CAA): 29:21

How significant has the reduction been? Because you mentioned earlier about the been a reduction. How significant is the reduction, since you've implemented this new policy, and also, you've got the delay code to assist with that, to give you measurable.

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 29:35

So, the impact on it has been huge. So, when we think about our operational meetings that were taking place. It was a constant challenge. It was being discussed in a lot of our meetings around kind of like having a huge impact on our operation. And I think the measure of that now is that we very, very rarely see delays now attributed to the offload of cabin bags to the hold of the aircraft. So, it's gone from something that creates. It a lot of noise to something that's barely talked about now, and it's one of the things that we're really proud of, that we've managed to change from an operational and a safety deliverable perspective.

Bodhi Burdett (UK CAA): 30:09

Who would generate a report if there was a delay with the delay code 10 apportioned to it? Can you tell us if that's just the flight crew, or is it the cabin crew, because they have a journey log or something, and also the cabin crew have a cabin crew report or something, does every single touch point record information?

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 30:26

Yeah, they do, including the ground handling agents as well. So, the ground handling agents are looking at kind of like, what flights are going out late as well. So, it's not just cabin crew in pilots that are recording that kind of information. If there's a safety impact or there's a safety concern that's raised, and that's raised through our safety reporting system, so we all get visibility of the output from that. But like local level, at airport level, we discuss operational performance regularly that's really well defined in our processes and procedures. And when we see something starting to trend, then our airport managers will be taking action to manage that. That's how we work.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 31:02

Can we talk about dangerous goods training and how that works at easyJet? Are there specific roles or staff members that receive that training?

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 31:09

No, it's everybody involved in the operation. So from flight crew, cabin crew, ground staff and even certain head office functions and administration functions, those who administer the manuals make decisions, and there's a requirement for everybody to be dangerous goods trained who sits on the Dangerous Goods steering group, so anybody involved in the operation has an element of Dangerous Goods training. So, the Dangerous Goods training is aided by the CBTA competency-based training assessment. So that really supports us in terms of the design of the training material going out to each specific role, so we can design the training for each competency for each role. So that really supports us, because it means that we can provide the right information to the right people.

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 31:52

And I think certainly with the prevalence of lithium batteries, now, we've used that to our advantage, haven't we, so that we can put increased focus on the risk that lithium batteries present to our operation.

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 32:05

Yeah, we have focused our training based on lithium batteries, because that is the key item that we see day in, day out within our operation. And as we said earlier, we see it in anything. You've got push chairs, we've got smart bags, we've got hover boards, you've got E bikes, anything with wheels has a battery in these days.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 32:23

We talked about the Dangerous Goods training that easyJet staff receive, and as you mentioned, this includes flight crew, cabin crew, and extends to certain head office functions and administration, as well as the ground handling staff directly employed by easyJet. easyJet’s operational activities, though, are supported by Ground Handling staff and aircraft servicing providers that work for lots of different companies and are not directly employed by easyJet. Do they receive Dangerous Goods training too?

 

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 32:49

So, all our handling agents receive Dangerous Goods training. There's a regulatory requirement for them to receive that. I suppose the thing that we do from an easyJet perspective is that we've got a comprehensive assurance program and compliance monitoring program, which is layered so that when we get out into airports, we go and check to make sure that people are appropriately trained to complete the tasks that they're fulfilling. And of course, one of the parts of that is making sure that where we've got an interface between our ground crew and potential dangerous goods, then they've received the appropriate training so that they know what to do in case they encounter them.

We're not a dangerous goods operator, so we don't have that complexity in terms of things that we need to kind of like put in the aircraft hold, but the hidden dangerous goods are really, really important for us to understand what they are, and we make sure that the training captures that, I think that leads into doesn't it as well, that there's almost a strategic approach that we take to recognize the fact that we may have potentially hidden dangerous goods on board our aircraft. And if we think about certain times of the year, we're likely to see specific items carried at certain times of the year, and I think about myself and my own hobbies, that I like to go to the Alps and go walking and climbing and camping. So pretty much every year, I'm taking things like camping stoves and those kinds of things with me. So, when you see somebody that's dressed in outdoor gear and they've got a big rucksack on the back, then that can act as a prompt for people to say, I wonder if that person's carrying a camping stove. So we encourage that kind of behavior, not just in summer for those kinds of items, but we can think about the winter season as well, when people are going skiing, and we've got people carrying avalanche packs and all those kinds of things as well Christmas, when we see things like Christmas crackers that are potentially being carried, so we use them, it almost becomes kind of like a targeted approach that we can use to our benefit to prompt people, because there's telltale markers that people may be carrying something on their person or in their checking baggage that they shouldn't be doing. So, I think, yeah, considering the seasonality of it as well, can be really good at helping us mitigate some of the risks that. Dangerous Goods can present to safe operations.

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 35:02

On the back of that as well, we've also got the benefit of customer comms, so as we go through different parts and seasons of the year, we can target our customer comms that lands in our customers in boxes and on the app, so we can provide that information in good time before they start packing their bags for the holidays or for the trip.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 35:18

Ok, so we've summarized the passenger journey and how passengers will come in contact with a wide range of easyJet staff doing different types of roles. How do you as an operator tackle the issue of awareness across that whole piece and the different staff working across your network?

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 35:32

For us, safety promotion is one of the fundamental pillars of our safety management system, and we've put a huge amount of emphasis on and focus on the importance of safety promotion, certainly since the restart of operations post COVID, and that's just been growing and evolving over time. So, we've been developing safety campaigns over recent years that have just been growing and growing. And what we do via that is, I think, historically, what we've been guilty of as a team in the ground ops department was just issuing a poster and sort of like hoping that that message had land with people. And to be quite frank, that just wasn't good enough. And we recognized the importance of, yeah, we need those materials so that we can raise awareness for people, so that they've got something visual to look at. But actually, the engagement part of that was absolutely huge. So, we didn't just issue the posters. We started getting out into the operation, doing safety promotion activities with our ground handling partners across the network. So, we'd go into airports and raise awareness around particular topics that we wanted to discuss and talk about. We'd be holding Lunch and Learn sessions, so we'd be providing catering for everybody. So, we've given people sandwiches and cakes and biscuits and crisps and drinks, and that allowed us to have really good discussion. And then Callum has done some amazing work on safety promotion. And one of the really important things that we've been considering is kind of like, what's in it for them?

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 37:01

Yeah, so what's in it for me is a really important phrase, because it's a phrase that brings people in to engage with our safety promotion activities. A couple of examples that we've done with that is like Nick mentioned, we did the lunch and learn sessions, which was really effective because we provide them with a lunch, and we spoke to them about safety and various topics. We also have a competition which is linked via a QR code on all of our posters, which means that they can scan the QR code and it will ask a series of questions, and it means that we can ask some targeted questions, and it means that we can obtain data as well from people's knowledge of the procedures. And then we can put actions in place ourselves as an airline, to try and bring that knowledge back up to where it should be if we do see any knowledge gaps. Also, it gave us an opportunity as a competition to engage with our staff by giving prizes out for getting the questions right. It was a simple easyJet goodie bag which had a model plane, pen, key-ring, safety star in it, and at the end of the campaign, we also have a final prize for those who have really engaged, where we take them to our simulator and we put them through different scenarios so they can understand how their role impacts the pilots flying the airplane. So, it's not only a prize that's a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of our ground handlers, it also gives us a training opportunity to enhance their knowledge.

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 38:23

I think that's really important. Like, there's not many people that get the opportunity to go and sit in a flight simulator and fly an Airbus, say, 320 around. And I think actually, by doing that with the ground handling community, it gives them something really to work towards as well. And that has been an amazing driver. I think for some of the engagement that we've seen. I mean, like when we did the promotion activities last year Callum, how many people was it that scanned the QR codes in the end?

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 38:47

14 thousand scans we had, which is just incredible. The year before, we had 8 thousand and last year we had 14 thousand so we're working on our campaign for this year, and we want to double those numbers.

 

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 38:59

But like 14 thousand engagements around safety critical topics, for us, it just shows that when we do it right, the reach that we can get and the impact that we can have on the things that we want to focus on, and we've seen some really favorable results. But I suppose the approach that we take is we don't just settle for what we've done. We're constantly looking at ways for improving things as well. So, we want to develop that and evolve that over this year as well. I think one of the really positive impacts of this as well is that it's driven improvements in the reporting culture. I think when we look at our performance over, probably over the last decade, we can see Year and Year on improvements in kind of like in the reporting rate that we see from the ground handling community about events that have occurred in our operation and for us, reporting, it's so important because it underpins everything that we do. It underpins our management system. If people don't tell us what's going wrong, we can't take actions to fix it as well. So that positive impact on the reporting culture that safety promotion has had has been amazing for us as an organization, to start taking action to resolve concerns that are being identified.

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 40:07

Not only has it improved the numbers in terms of the numbers of reports we're getting, it's improved the quality of the reports that we're receiving as well. So, when we receive the initial report, we're seeing a better quality of report come through. So we can start taking action really, really quickly, rather than having to wait and ask further questions or wait for the investigation to progress, because if the report comes in with all of the detail, we can immediately start the investigation process and taking actions on the back of that.

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 40:35

Yeah, and we see some really good stuff from some of our network points, in particular relating to dangerous goods as well. Some airports are really, really active on proactive the reporting. We've identified these items that were in passengers’ bags that were going into the hold of the aircraft that shouldn't have been and that proactive reporting is amazing, because it demonstrates that the system is working. And we had particular issues with smart bags as well, didn't we, so that helps us develop better processes and procedures to allow us to manage them more effectively without causing risk to the operation.

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 41:08

Yeah, and we reward this sort of stuff as well. If they report to say that they've asked the Dangerous Goods questions to a customer, and their customers identified something that's in their bag that maybe shouldn't be, we reward that because it's fantastic that we're getting that report, so it also gives us an insight on what our customers are traveling with or where they might not have understood what's on our website, again, to drive improvements in maybe the information that's going out to our customers as well. So, by receiving these reports, it gives us some valuable information. So yeah, we reward that information by providing them with one of our safety stars that we give out.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 41:41

Are you involved in any aviation industry forums where you share this type of information and learnings?

Nick Pelham (easyJet): 41:46

There's a number of forums that we actively engage in, I suppose, for myself, personally, I'm part of the ground handling operations safety team run by the CAA. We're an active contributor to that. So, where we get the opportunity to provide insights to challenges that we see with our operation. We use Ghost to do that. We also work collaboratively with EASA and their safety promotion team as well to kind of like, let's get these topics raised. Because if they're affecting EasyJet, we are a really large operator, and I believe that we've got a moral responsibility such a large operator to support the rest of the aviation industry in safety promotion, because we're in a very, very fortunate position. If we can work to raise topical issues with bodies like those, with bodies like EASA, to raise awareness for the rest of the handling community and the airline operations community, then yeah, we actually take every opportunity to do that.

Voiceover: 42:46

Stay up to date with Skywise from the CAA by visiting skywise.caa.co.uk

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 42:54

So that was a look at how easyJet is managing the risks associated with transporting lithium batteries. I'm joined again now by CAA Dangerous Goods policy specialist Mario Ranito. He heard at the beginning of this episode, Mario, how would you say the aviation industry as a whole is responding to this issue?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 43:10

I think we could say that there's been an overall improvement in what's being done. However, one of the most important things here is that the technology is continuously evolving. And for example, if you think about e-cigarettes or power banks, there are various iterations of the device itself and the power that the battery itself contains, some less, some more. And also, the evolution of the devices themselves that are being readily made available to people at relatively low cost for purchase, and the evolution of these things. We've seen trainers with lithium batteries. We've seen flashlights which are sold as a flashlight, but with the capability of charging a phone or another device, so that theoretically, and by definition of the regulations, is a lithium battery, and that flashlight, for example, which could be carried by someone who's going on a camping trip is, in effect, a power bank, which cannot be taken in the old baggage. It needs to be taken into the cabin by definition, because it's a lithium battery, it's served to power other devices. So, it's about how the consumer articles are evolving, and they end use, and how the passengers or the people who are taking them with them understand about the device.

So, if you're buying something that just is a flashlight, for example, you won't have the indication that that is something you need to carry within the cabin. So, I think the biggest challenge that we have is that because. Because the consumer market is continuously evolving, you can't publish a list of all devices that can be carried in the cabin and all devices that can go in the cargo compartment, for example, because you risk it being out of date two minutes after it's been published. So, we can't be specific. The regulations have to give general guidance, and then the industry has to ensure that the people who are transporting these things are aware of what sort of devices. It'll be a challenge for them, but it's about communicating the information in an effective manner that a passenger who is a person who doesn't have any specific Dangerous Goods training and is not required to have understands the risks of what they are carrying with them and has clear guidance for them to make an informed decision on what they need to carry with them in their cabin bag, or what can effectively go into the car compartment. For example, if you are carrying a laptop with you, if the laptop can be permanently switched off, so not in a sleep mode, if it can be completely switched off and it is protected in your hold baggage, you can let it go into the car compartment, but there are specific things. It's not switched on. There is no possibility that it can be inadvertently switched on. In other words, there's no energy consumption. There's no risk of the battery running out of power or overheating because there's consumption involved, and it's protected from damage inside the suitcase, then you can carry, so that's the safety element. If you're carrying something which can be carried in whole baggage, then make sure that it's protected. It's all about the information and awareness that the passenger needs to have before travel.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 46:58

What would your message be for operators? What should they be doing to mitigate the risks relating to lithium batteries?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 47:03

Well, as mentioned previously by easyJet, I think one of the most important things for the operator is identifying I think they already are doing that, but to identify the demographics and passenger profiles. In other words, what these people are flying for? Are they going on holiday or they're going for business trip, etc.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 47:22

Why is that so important?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 47:24

The demographics will probably also identify what sort of devices people will be taking with them, and in that context, offer as much of a complete message as possible for passengers to understand what they can and cannot carry in either cabin bag or old baggage, because on a regulatory basis, the responsibility lies with the operator to make sure that message is effectively transmitted, and that includes them continuously addressing the risk and continuously assessing new things that they are finding passengers to be carrying. So it's a continuous awareness campaign of the evolution of what is being seen on board the aircraft and what passengers are carrying. And then, you know, addressing on a continuous basis all of these new type of devices that may be introduced by passengers. I mean, we have traditional regional things like passengers carrying, when they go on holiday, because they have a home elsewhere, outside of the country, carrying a power tool with them, and you know, the power tool with the battery in the whole baggage, because it's a sizable power tool with a sizable battery, and it's about making them aware of how that article should be transported. So rather than trying to make the passengers experience a streamless experience whilst going through the booking and going through the airport, ensuring that there is an effective safety message in what they are transmitting to the passenger.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 49:02

So, we've covered your recommendations for operators in relation to lithium batteries, but it's also really important that we're all aware of what we need to do when we fly. So, what advice would you have for passengers and the public?

Mario Ranito (UK CAA): 49:13

So, for passengers and the general public, my message would be to be aware and know what you're buying as a device for personal use, do your research before you buy, and be aware of possible counterfeit products that you may option to buy if it's cheap. There is a strong possibility that the quality of manufacturing is not very good, or recycled lithium batteries are being used. For example, the effects of low-quality devices on your safety could also be reflected in your personal life, at home or going about your day-to-day life. You should be aware that damaged batteries are prohibited for carriage as cargo. So, you should also be aware that a damaged device could be considered a. Safe for you to carry in your personal belongings inside an aircraft. If you are unsure of how you should or where you can carry your devices when traveling, you should contact the airline and listen to the messages being communicated by these airlines and when you do your checking, for example, the messages are there for your safety.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 50:21

Thanks Mario, staying on that theme of what we all can do in this area. We're going to end this episode by hearing again from Callum Hutchinson, quality and safety manager at easyJet. So, here's his advice on how passengers can help them and other airlines when they travel.

Callum Hutchinson (easyJet): 50:35

So I think they can help us by reading all the information on the websites available, read all signage, taking all signage at the airports, making sure that when they arrive at the kiosk, they read the information on the kiosk, and they're only confirming to what they understand. And also ask staff members. We've got staff around that are there to answer any questions, and safety is our priority, so all staff will be able to help customers by answering those questions.

Nathan Lovett (UK CAA): 51:01

You can find more guidance for passengers in the episode notes. And if you work in the aviation industry, whether that's for an airline, airport or ground handling company, and either see something that doesn't seem right or want to raise a concern, please report it, either through your employer's reporting process or make a report directly to the UK. CAA, there are specific requirements for the reporting of safety related occurrences through UK regulation. 3-7-6 / 2-0-1-4, We've included links in the episode notes where you can find information on how to make a report to the UK CAA and the benefits of reporting occurrences that go through that process. We've also included information on a specific reporting mechanism for accidents or incidents involving the transport of Dangerous Goods. Information provided through these reports highlights where improvements in safety can be developed for the benefit of everyone, whether that is the traveling public or the aviation industry. So that's it for this episode. Our thanks to Nick Pelham and Callum Hutchinson at easyJet and also to Mario Ranito and Bodhi Burdett from the UK CAA Dangerous Goods team. If you have any questions or suggestions for areas that you'd like us to cover in future podcasts, please get in Touch by emailing safetyfilespodcast@caa.co.uk Thanks for listening.