Additional recommendations by the NTSB included the establishment of maximum loading density requirements, in order to restrict the quantities of lithium batteries and other hazardous or flammable materials that are carried by air.
These guidelines were offered following an analysis of the in-flight fire and subsequent crash of Asiana Airlines flight 991 on July 28 2011, which went down about 80 miles west of South Korea’s Jeju International airport. The NTSB partook of the investigation, which was headed by the Republic of Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.
The recommendations were announced before the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration which, as a general rule, cannot issue stricter regulations for the safe transportation of batteries than existing international regulations. However, reasonable evidence of a deficiency in the international regulations is found, the US Congress has given PHMSA authority to act.
Unlike the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the NTSB feels strongly that the circumstances and findings in the Asiana Airlines incident demonstrate the need for new cargo segregation and loading density requirements.
