Hazardous materials incidents in military aircraft

We evaluated 10 years of reported hazardous cargo incident information from the U.S. Air Force and Naval Safety Centers. In this first of two papers describing the hazardous cargo problems reported by the two services, we describe types of aircraft and types of hazardous cargo involved in incidents not causing aircraft mishaps. Normally, hazardous cargo must be manifested as such and no passengers are allowed on such flights. Unauthorized hazardous cargo was found on military aircraft carrying passengers. The most common problem was fuel spills or fumes. The most frequent cause of a hazardous cargo incident was improper manifest of same. Improvements are recommended for the incompatible or inconsistent hazardous cargo incident reporting systems, in order to improve prevention of hazardous cargo incidents.