DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
German authorities are investigating whether dangerous chemicals were illegally shipped in passenger aircraft
The German police are investigating claims that a Hamburg-based company has been shipping a dangerous industrial chemical as non-hazardous cargo in passenger aircraft.
The firm at the centre of the probe, Martechnic, supplies a dilution of the chemical calcium hydride solution, known as WIO test solution, to industries that use it to detect the presence of water in oil. Pure calcium hydride reacts violently in air, acids or water, releasing hydrogen gas which can be ignited by the heat of the reaction.
The chemical may only be airfreighted in pure cargo aircraft in specialist containers labelled as hazardous under European and US regulations.
The Hamburg police department says it is "not permitted to release any details at this time" and declines to confirm Martechnic is under investigation.
No charges against any of Martechnic's directors had been filed as of 17 September, according to the Hamburg prosecutor's office. The German civil aviation authority (LBA), which referred the case to the Hamburg police, declines to comment on the investigation.
Frank Herholdt, a Martechnic employee and son of Martechnic's managing director Ingo Herholdt, says the police are investigating because a competitor has passed misinformation about the company's WIO test solution to the authorities, but declines to comment further.
Martechnic says on its website that it contests a decision by the German authorities to reclassify its WIO as a hazardous material. The Hamburg police will be looking into why Martechnic's WIO had not tested as hazardous when supplied to the same authorities previously, and thus could be shipped on passenger aircraft far more cheaply. Martechnic claims on its website that the latest tests were not carried out on merchandise goods, but it is understood that the police tested a WIO solution supplied by Martechnic to one of its customers.
If the disputed reclassification is confirmed, estimates as to how many wrongly classified WIO shipments may have been dispatched on passenger aircraft over the last two-three years vary between 2,000 and 4,000, based on the company's 2002 accounts.
The authorities take hazardous cargo investigations seriously because of the potential consequences. Chemical canisters of a different type packed and shipped illegally by a US maintenance company caused the fire on a ValuJet McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in May 1996 that brought the aircraft down in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board, according to investigators.
Source: Flight International
