Amazon has been fined £65,000 after being found guilty of attempting to ship dangerous goods by air.
The online giant tried to transport lithium-ion batteries and flammable aerosols between 2014 and 2015. It was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court [London, UK] of causing dangerous goods to be delivered for carriage in an aircraft in breach of air navigation rules.
An Amazon spokesman said: "The safety of the public, our customers, employees and partners is an absolute priority."
The prosecution had been brought by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) under the Air Navigation (Dangerous Goods) Regulations 2002. The items were destined for flights in and outside the UK in four shipments between January 2014 and June 2015. They were only discovered when the cargoes were screened by Royal Mail before departure, and seized before they could reach the aircraft.
The court heard that Amazon had tried to ship a lithium-ion battery to Jersey on a day before 7 January 2014, and a flammable gas aerosol to Romania on a similar date.
Another shipment, destined for Ireland on a day before 17 July 2014, contained another aerosol, while Amazon illegally tried to send two more lithium-ion batteries to Northern Ireland between 12 May and 3 June 2015.
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Saturday September 24 2016, @08:42PM
By this law, almost everyone on a passenger plane is guilty. Why the selective enforcement?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Saturday September 24 2016, @08:53PM
Maybe because the passengers are also fire alarms and suppression systems? There is at least a chance that people can deal with it, and I think batteries have caught on fire before in the air. I would also say that they know if the battery is in good condition or not.
When you have shipping though, it could be 200 tightly packed into a large box. How long would it take somebody on a cargo plane to get that battery having a problem? It may be more likely that a cargo plane would have critical failure during such a flight than a passenger plane.
It could be a problem that is greatly exacerbated by the logistics of shipping. Lithium-ion batteries are dangerous. We use them because we have no reasonable alternative, and those fuckers don't even give us the juice we actually need anyways. How many of us are carrying an extra 20,000mAH just to get a smartphone to last the whole day? Last time I turned on location and mapping I felt the phone heat up quite a bit and it drained the battery faster than it could be charged from the cigarette power adapter. So they're both dangerous, and inferior technology it seems.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Saturday September 24 2016, @09:44PM
Lithium ion batteries are explicately allowed in the passenger compartment as long as they're not held in bulk (there's a limit per person, though that isn't often enforced). The cargo deck is different since it may not be accessible easily from the passenger deck, and even if it is, by time a fire is detected, it would be inaccessible to access whatever it is that is burning due to the heat (SA 295 was a case where a fire broke out in a cargo section of the airplane).
A single lithium ion battery fire, while bad, is manageable. you can get it in a fire blanket, and if necessary, throw it out the door (there are procedures on what a pilot can do to successfully allow the doors to be opened in flight; specifically meant for venting smoke).
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Username on Saturday September 24 2016, @10:48PM
UPS Airlines Flight 6 [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 25 2016, @03:17AM
"UPS Battery Fire Causes Crash"
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday September 25 2016, @07:35AM
If you read TFS, all will become clear.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday September 24 2016, @09:19PM
could they not have made it 65535, just for grins? or even 65536 for even more grins?
I would have. no doubt about it.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by Username on Saturday September 24 2016, @10:51PM
They really got pounded.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 25 2016, @12:27AM
Check Fedex, DHL and the rest. Amazon isn't the only one who makes mistakes like this.
Lovely to see such unbiased 'stories' here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 25 2016, @03:09AM
Right, for instance Libya paid a fine over Lockerbie.