Lithium-iron batteries, that have spontaneously exploded on other flights was in the cargo hold of Flight MH370, 'The Daily Beast' has reported.
Malaysian officials have confirmed that the plane carried a consignment of lithium-ion batteries. “These are not regarded as dangerous goods,” the report quotes the CEO of Malaysian Airlines, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, as saying: “and were packed as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.”
Accident investigators would be interested in probing what was in the cargo hold of Boeing 777, though little attention has been paid to it so far.
The International Air Transport Association, IATA has pointed out that millions of lithium-ion batteries are safely carried by air every year, the report says.
The reports lists incidents involving these batteries from the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Security and Hazardous Materials Safety's records. They include:
The hands of a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight burned when spare lithium-ion batteries for a cell phone melted the zip-top bag in which they were carried, breached the passenger’s carry-on bag and produced smoke and flames.
A package of 18 lithium-ion batteries melted through their plastic wrap and set fire to their outer package at the UPS flight center in Louisville, Kentucky.
A FedEx pilot was taking the jump seat in the cockpit of a flight from Memphis when a lithium-ion battery in a flashlight carried in his backpack caught fire while the airplane was still at the gate.
The FAA cautions that their published list of scores of incidents does not represent all the information collected nor “all investigative or enforcement actions taken.”
The Daily Beast reports suggests the missing plane's cargo should be given "equal weight with other scenarios as the possible cause of an accident".
International flights most likely to be carrying lithium-ion batteries are those originating in the countries that manufacture them, which include Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan, it says.
