WASHINGTON—A U.N. panel on Monday approved a temporary ban on cargo shipments of rechargeable lithium batteries on passenger planes because they can create intense fires capable of destroying an aircraft.
The decision by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization’s top-level governing council isn’t binding, but most countries follow the agency’s standards. The ban is effective on April 1.
“This interim prohibition will continue to be in force as separate work continues through ICAO on a new lithium battery packaging performance standard, currently expected by 2018,” said Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, the ICAO council’s president.
Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, president of the council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), speaks at the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit in Singapore on February 15, 2016. Mohd Fyrol/AFP/Getty Images
