Early detection
Apart from banning lithium batteries in these amounts, from cargo aircraft, the only way to really do something effective is EARLY DETECTION.
We need a video surveillance system for critical places. This system MUST include thermal imaging cameras. There are several options -
One can be to take a snapshot when doors are closed, then compare it to just before take-off. If, despite packs running, there is a substantial increase in temperature anywhere in the area where the cameras are pointing, it can be investigated, before taking off.
Also, a gradual rise in temperature even in tenths of a degree can easily be spotted with thermal cameras - automatically. The technology is here, but these cameras are not cheap. But what is the price of each freighter crash - apart from loss of lives and the grief involved? Albeit expensive, the weight of the system would not be that much - compared to the protection offered.
It seems in the lithium case, the batteries are somehow triggered on ground - too high temperature when handling them? In Dubai, they were not even declared as dangerous goods, as far as I know. Leaving them in the Dubai blistering heat might have been enough to start a chain reaction. Might the same have happened in Incheon?
Even though early detection might not have helped over the middle of the Pacific, it would still be better to know that something is going on - which should NOT be going on.
How else would we know if a pallet is a ticking fire bomb, preparing for an inferno within minutes or hours?
Some fires makes lots of smoke, right from the start, others take a while before the smoke starts. And the smoke needs to get to the smoke detectors.
Thermal imaging with automatic temperature change monitoring would enable us to spot these issues, way before they get to this point. And hopefully even before we get airborne ...
Thinking of the crews of the Asiana and the UPS - let them not have perished in vain. And let there not be other crews to follow. Please.