12.2 Marking, Labelling, Exceptions, Hidden Dangerous Goods & Cabin Emergency Response

The Nigerian legal basis

Nig. CARs Part 15 — Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air adopts the ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (ICAO Doc 9284) as the detailed specification, which is in turn the operative expression of ICAO Annex 18. Any instruction or limitation in the Technical Instructions applies in Nigeria.

Training. Part 15 requires training programmes and curricula appropriate to function, and 15.6.1.4 sets recurrency:

• Recurrent training shall be provided within 24 months of previous training to ensure knowledge is current;
• If recurrent training is completed within the final three months of validity of the previous training, the new validity runs from the month in which the recurrent training was completed until 24 months from the expiry month of the previous training — so completing early does not cost the crew member validity.

Separately, Nig. CARs 8.10.1.34 makes recognition or transportation of dangerous goods one of the five mandatory elements of cabin crew recurrent ground training every 12 calendar months.

Marking and labelling

Cabin crew are not shippers, but they must be able to read a package and recognise when something in the cabin is not what it appears.

The proper shipping name and UN number together are the identification an emergency responder needs, and it is what a crew member should read out to the flight deck when reporting a suspect package.

Exceptions

Not all dangerous goods are prohibited. The Technical Instructions provide exceptions for defined situations, and knowing them prevents both over-reaction and under-reaction:

• Dangerous goods carried by passengers or crew — such as medicinal and toiletry articles in limited quantities, permitted lithium batteries, mobility aids with batteries, and specified medical devices, each subject to conditions and in some cases to operator approval;
• Items required for the airworthiness or operation of the aircraft, such as the aircraft's own oxygen bottles, extinguishers, batteries and chemical generators;
• Items intended for use in flight, such as dry ice used for catering and aerosols carried for cabin service or disinsection;
• Company material carried under specified conditions;
• Excepted and limited quantity consignments carried in accordance with the Technical Instructions.

The exceptions are conditional. "Permitted" almost always means permitted in a stated quantity, in a stated place, with stated protection — for example a spare lithium battery permitted in carry-on baggage only, with terminals protected, and not in the hold.

Hidden dangerous goods

The single most valuable cabin crew skill in this subject is scepticism about innocuous descriptions. A passenger or shipper rarely says "I have dangerous goods"; they say something ordinary that hides one.

The correct behaviour when a description is general is to ask a specific question: what is in it, does it contain any batteries, aerosols, fuel or gas, is there any liquid. A general answer to a general question is not a check.

Cabin dangerous goods incident response

The sequence is deliberately memorable because the event is rare and stressful.

1. Notify the flight deck immediately. Give the location, what is happening — smoke, fire, fumes, spillage, leaking — and the package marking if it can be read safely.
2. Don protective equipment. PBE where there is smoke or fumes, and gloves. Do not touch a leaking or spilling substance with bare hands.
3. Move passengers away from the item, upwind of the airflow where possible, and reseat them.
4. Fight fire with the appropriate agent. Use the extinguisher on flame; for a lithium battery, extinguish flame first and then cool the cells continuously with water or another non-alcoholic liquid, since the extinguishing agent will not cool the cells.
5. Contain spillage using the operator's dangerous goods spill kit or, where none is carried, the universal precaution kit and available absorbent material. Bag and seal contaminated items.
6. Do not move a hot, smoking or off-gassing item, and do not carry a burning device through the cabin.
7. Isolate the area and maintain a continuous watch until landing, since re-ignition is a real risk.
8. Ventilate as directed by the flight deck, and follow the flight crew's instructions on cabin airflow.
9. Record and report. Note the time, location, package markings, what was done and who was exposed. Nig. CARs Part 15 requires reporting of dangerous goods accidents and incidents, and the aircraft's condition and any contamination must be handed over to engineering and ground staff.

Undeclared dangerous goods discovered but not yet dangerous — a lighter in a checked bag, a camping gas cartridge in cabin baggage — is still an occurrence. It is removed in accordance with procedure where safe to do so, the passenger is identified and the event is reported, because the reporting is what allows the operator and the Authority to see the pattern.