[ccp4bb]: shipping dry dewar

[Vilmos Fulop <vilmos@globin.bio.warwick.ac.uk>]

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This is slightly off-topic, and it has been discussed recently, but some
of you may want to know this:

Following our incident when flying with the dry dewar about two months ago
I attended a security meeting with British Airways/Maersk Air to discuss
the best possible way to deal with this. They want us to tell details
about the dewar to the travel agent at the time of booking the ticket.
They will pass the information to relevant people then (airline, airport
security) and come back to you with the authorisation. They promised me
that if we follow this procedure then they will look after our dewars.
There are no extra fees involved. So, send an e-mail/fax to your travel
agent saying something like this:

YOU ARE taking some chemical samples (protein crystals) from YOUR
University to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble
France in a thermos flask (Taylor-Wharton CP65 dewar). I am taking the
XXXXXX flight from XXXXXXX to Lyon on DATE and returning to XXXXXX(home)
on DATE (FLIGHT NO). The thermos flask will be precooled with liquid
nitrogen, but will not contain any liquid nitrogen during the travel. The
Thaylor-Wharton's vapor shippers are not pressurized vessels, and such, do
not come under the purview of the vast majority of the 'IATA' regulations
concerning shipment of liquid nitrogen by commercial aircraft. The samples
are non-hazardous and have no commercial value. The dewar will be in it's
shipping case and needs to be kept upright all time. If you need further
information please contact me.
Contact details etc.

This procedure was not unknown by the travel agent I use, and I got the
authorisation back by e-mail (via the travel agent) from BA Customer
Services. Take a copy of the letter you sent them and also the
authorisation with you when you travel. You need a shipping case, but do
not let them check it in as an ordinary luggage. It has to be on hold. I
used BA (operated by Maersk Air) from Birmingham to Lyon, and someone took
away the dewar from me after checking in, and on the return trip I had to
take it to the aircraft and use the valet service. Both ways worked very
well. Taking the dewar on board with you is not preferred/tolerated
anymore.

Vilmos Fulop   
University of Warwick
Department of Biological Sciences
Gibbet Hill Road
Coventry CV4 7AL
U.K.
Tel: 44 (0)24 76572628
Fax: 44 (0)24 76523701
http://globin.bio.warwick.ac.uk/~vilmos/