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FAA fines battery shipper $1.1m for hazmat violations

Chris Gillis
·
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The FAA proposed a $1.1 million civil penalty against Braille Battery, its largest ever for illegal lithium battery air transport.
  • Braille Battery allegedly shipped improperly packaged and tested lithium ion batteries by air, resulting in a FedEx truck fire.
  • The company continued shipping batteries by air despite warnings, totaling 77 batteries across 14 shipments after the initial incident.
  • This is not Braille Battery's first violation; they were previously penalized $8,000 in 2013 for similar offenses.
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The Federal Aviation Administration proposed a $1.1 million civil penalty against Braille Battery, representing the largest civil penalty the agency has proposed for alleged illegal air transport of lithium batteries.
   The U.S. Transportation Department’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $1.1 million civil penalty against Sarasota, Fla.-based Braille Battery for alleged violations of the country’s hazardous materials transportation regulations.
   This is the largest civil penalty that the FAA has proposed for alleged illegal air transport of lithium batteries.
   The FAA alleged that on June 1, 2016, Braille offered four shipments, each containing a 24-volt lithium ion battery, to FedEx for air transport. “One of the batteries apparently caught fire while it was being transported on a FedEx truck, after it had been transported on an aircraft, resulting in the destruction of the vehicle,” the agency said.
   The FAA further alleged that Braille’s lithium batteries failed both UN and U.S. testing standards, were not equipped with preventing reverse current flow, and were improperly packaged. In addition, the agency said that Braille failed to properly train its employs on properly shipping hazardous materials.
   Despite several warnings to Braille from the FAA during the first two weeks following the FedEx truck fire, the company continued on 14 separate occasions to ship its lithium ion batteries by air transport between July 14 and Aug. 16, 2016. The shipment sizes ranged from one to 27 batteries, for a total of 77 batteries shipped by air transport.
   This isn’t the first time that Braille has been found to violate federal hazardous materials transport regulations. Back in 2013, the FAA issued the company an $8,000 civil penalty for shipping undeclared lithium ion batteries.

Chris Gillis

Located in the Washington, D.C. area, Chris Gillis primarily reports on regulatory and legislative topics that impact cross-border trade. He joined American Shipper in 1994, shortly after graduating from Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Md., with a degree in international business and economics.