Flying with Scurion batteries

roo.walters.3

New member
Having had personal experience of the confiscation of expensive Scurion batteries by Emirates at Dubai, does anyone have any kind of certification or specification that might be used to dissuade very well meaning airport security staff from relieving us of these treasured items? I'm sure that they must be in hand luggage but beyond this, talking to cavers and divers who have travelled, it still seams to be a bit of a lottery. Best regards and thanks .... Roo.
 

Mark Wright

Active member
Roo,

I always put my batteries in my checked in luggage, never in my hand luggage. I've never had any problems.

Mark
 

MarkS

Moderator
You're right that they should be in hand luggage. How often hold bags get checked, I don't know, but we did have ours checked on an internal flight in China and were asked to remove all batteries from our hold bags.

The CAA website (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2200&pageid=14501) is pretty clear on UK regulations which, from what I've looked at, seem to match general regulations I've seen elsewhere, and Scurion batteries will be well within the limits. I've taken print outs of these with me when I've had lots of LiPo batteries for drills in my hand luggage, but have never had to resort to showing them.

This got discussed in passing on a previous thread at http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=16979.0.

A quick look at Emirates suggests Scurion batteries should be fine: http://content.emirates.com/downloads/ek/pdfs/dangerous_goods/EN_1403_EK_Dangerous_Goods_2014_FINAL_01.pdf
 

Rob

Well-known member
MarkS said:
The CAA website (http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2200&pageid=14501) is pretty clear on UK regulations....
Just one cautionary note, Henry Rockliff studied some regulations long and hard for our lightweight expedition to Crete in 2009, as we had loads of LiIon batteries, including homemade ones. These he supposedly had to take on as hand luggage. He even printed off all the regulatory paperwork, so he could show he'd done as he was allowed. At security they got manager after manager down, and then all agreed that that they had to go in the hold, and that Manchester Airport complies to a different set of regulations! So in short, you might be able to do it, but don't expect an easy ride...
 

peterk

Member
I believe the definitive guidance is in this IATA document http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Documents/lithium-battery-guidance-document-2015-en.pdf There's a section on passengers' baggage running to 4 pages and leaving aside all the technical references on battery capacity, state of charge etc. I would think the real world approach at check in will be "is it a known brand?"
quote from the document: As said before batteries manufactured, distributed or sold by major companies do meet this requirement, however, certain replacement batteries which are not OEM or aftermarket batteries but simply low-cost copies of those ? also called ?fakes? ? may not have undergone the required tests. Untested batteries are consequently excluded from air transport.
 

Ian

Member
The note on page 2 of the IATA guide says it all. The only way to carry lithium batteries on a passenger plane is inside or packed with equipment. So you may need the original scurion packaging to get spare batteries through since having them loose is not acceptable.

I have heard of spare laptop batteries being confiscated because they weren't inside the laptop.

The rest of the IATA guide keeps on talking about suitable packaging on cargo planes, not passenger planes.

Elsewhere it does talk about upto two spare batteries per person for cameras, laptops etc.

Still a very low limit.
 

peterk

Member
Ian said:
The note on page 2 of the IATA guide says it all. The only way to carry lithium batteries on a passenger plane is inside or packed with equipment. So you may need the original scurion packaging to get spare batteries through since having them loose is not acceptable.

I have heard of spare laptop batteries being confiscated because they weren't inside the laptop.

The rest of the IATA guide keeps on talking about suitable packaging on cargo planes, not passenger planes.
......
Ian
You've confused me.  Did you get as far as page 12 that starts:
Passenger Provisions
Transport within Passenger Baggage

Certain restrictions apply to the carriage of lithium metal and lithium ion batteries even when carried by passengers as baggage
and continues for 4 pages?
"Because of the risks associated with the carriage of spare batteries these may not be transported within passenger checked baggage. Spare batteries must be in carry-on baggage."
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
Last year, for all internal flights in China that we took, you had to remove all batteries from hold luggage.  Even if you accidently left batteries in your helmet light (whatever make) for example, you got called back to check in and had to remove them.  Your bags were then x-rayed again to make sure you were free of batteries. they were very strict with all passengers, Chinese and foreigners alike.  You could only carry batteries in hand luggage.  These were then often scrutinised if they were non standard batteries.  It is a problem that cavers going to China are aware of.  It may be a problem that Scurion do not offer any certification for their batteries which I think is the point of the OP.
 
Top