Airline safety is built on having more than one layer of defence to prevent high consequence events occurring.
If the flying pilot forgets to put the gear down, the pilot monitoring is there as a back up, if they both forget, the GPWS calls " too low gear" .
There are literally thousands of examples of this 'multi-layered defence' approach to aviation safety, the ATSB investigators are experts in this grand ethos of safety management. It is a good one, it works.
So what is wrong with the one and only safety action detailed in this report?
From the main body of the report;
The passenger stated during check-in that there were no batteries in the checked bags,
The passenger who had checked in the case was located and was asked whether any batteries were in it, to which the passenger responded there were none.
The one and only 'Safety Action';
Safety Action As a result of this occurrence, Fiji Airways has issued an Airport Operations Standing Order: Lithium Metal & Lithium Ion Cells Batteries advising check-in staff to ask every passenger whether their baggage contains lithium batteries and to check batteries are carried in accordance with regulations. Any passenger carrying undeclared lithium batteries that are discovered prior to departure will be offloaded and refused carriage.
They may as well have added;
Any passenger carrying undeclared lithium batteries that are discovered subsequent to departure will most likely be burnt to death and therefore not likely to require further carriage.
If the 'Safety Action ' above had been implemented three months prior to this incident it would have had no effect of the outcome because the passenger simply lied. Passengers will do this, it is human nature to favour a short term gain over the remote risk of a larger long term loss. It is Human Factors 101 and ATSB understand the inadequacy in expecting otherwise.
Whether or not there are large numbers of lithium batteries in the hold of a commercial airliner relies on
A) The potentially tired, undertrained, under resourced, minimum wage earning, shift worker remembering to ask the pax if there are batteries in the checked luggage, and
B) the passenger speaking the same language as the check in staff, and
C) the passenger telling the truth.
The above is fine for one layer of defence, but there needs to be a robust second layer.
We will lose more aircraft to battery fires and then stronger systems will be implemented.