MD-80 Series (DC-9-80) Undifferentiated or Other Model
Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Manuals; Human Factors; Company Policy
The Passenger Agent told passenger to tell Flight Attendant (FA) that he had lithium ion batteries.They told me and I was curious and did a word search for lithium ion batteries in Part 1 and came to the page on Passenger and Cargo.In the Flight Manual Part YYYY: Batteries; Lithium-ion - In Device or As Spare (Excluding Mobility Device Batteries) ''' Spare batteries must be in original store packaging; individually plastic-bagged/ boxed; or covered with tape to protect ''' terminals. Yes -''Up to two spare '' lithium ion batteries with an aggregate lithium content of up to 25 grams; plus '' An unlimited number of batteries of less than 2 grams '' lithium ''' contentNo- I asked the FAs to have the passenger come up with his lithium ion batteries. He did and was very knowledgeable and told me they had to be in a separate plastic bag and he had even taped the terminals. I inspected the batteries and could find no reference to the 25 grams referenced in Part 1. He said he had been flying with these batteries to our destination for the last 3 weeks for work with no problems.I called the cargo folks who had no idea about the grams reference in Part 1. He mentioned something about watt-hours. At the time I did not see anything on the battery that referenced watt-hour; but in my review of the pictures just a few minutes ago...I see a reference in the last line to this battery at 48Wh. So I guess I did get pertinent info from cargo that would have helped. I believe they said something about either a 120 or 160 Wh maximum according to IATA. Maybe Part one needs to match with the info we get from cargo folks...aren't they the experts?I suggest we change the manual to have same verbiage as the info cargo puts out. They had no idea what I was talking about when I quoted from our manual to them.
An air carrier Captain described the difficulty he encountered regarding the determination of the acceptability of lithium ion batteries brought aboard and declared by a passenger. A contributing factor was the lack of consistency between their Flight Manual description of qualifying quantities; and that of the cargo/baggage department.