Undeclared dangerous goods found in the booking, before the piece is built into a ULD, with every hold tied to its proof
Hidden batteries caught before they load, with every hold tied to its proof.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Undeclared dangerous goods detection finds cargo that contains dangerous goods — most often lithium batteries — booked under an ordinary description, before it is loaded. Undeclared Dangerous Goods Detection puts eight agents in front of every booking: they read the invoice, packing list and product listing behind the doubtful ones, work out watt-hours, UN number and packing instruction, weigh the shipper's history and the aircraft, and hold only the few that need a person, with the proof.
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Undeclared dangerous goods arrive with an ordinary description. A forwarder books one carton of "sports equipment", 22 kg, and nothing on the booking says DG, so dangerous goods acceptance never sees it, and the security X-ray is built to find explosives, not the full range of dangerous goods. The truth is on documents nobody reads at booking: the commercial invoice names a "48V 13Ah e-bike battery", and the product listing says it ships fully charged. Nobody works out 48 × 13 = 624 Wh before the cut-off.
The cargo safety officer has a list of suspicious words, a gut feel and minutes per booking. The aircraft on the booked flight matters — UN 3480 is forbidden on a passenger aircraft — and so does the shipper's record, which lives in email. When hidden DG is found, the FAA discrepancy notice under 49 CFR 175.31 and DOT Form F 5800.1 are written by hand from photos, and the lesson stays with the person who found it.
Estimated split for one undeclared lithium battery shipment that is found before loading, by hand and with the solution. By hand, many are never found at all.
Eight specialist agents read every booking and the documents behind it, rank the holds and draft the reports; people decide and sign.
Thursday, October 15, at Corvane Airways' Chicago O'Hare hub. At 1:52 pm a forwarder books one carton of "sports equipment", 22 kg, on CV 517 to Seattle — a Boeing 787-9 carrying passengers, cargo cut-off 4:40 pm. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Since midnight the agents have read 1,284 bookings at 38 stations; 1,261 fell through clean and 23 are held for a person, 9 of them waiting for Dana at ORD. Her list is ranked by risk and cut-off, and the agents have already said why: "sports equipment" on CV 517, two lithium-ion e-bike batteries of 624 Wh each, UN 3480.
The agents: “The most urgent decision is CV 517 "sports equipment": two e-bike batteries on a passenger aircraft, 95 minutes to cut-off. Want me to open it?”
Valves, handbags, seat covers, frozen salmon — each booking is read as it arrives and falls through clean. "Sports equipment" from a cycling shipper catches. Its card shows what caught it (invoice line 3: TrailVolt 48V 13Ah e-bike battery, spare × 2), the shipper's history in one line and the flight: CV 517, Boeing 787-9, passenger, cut-off in 1 h 35 min.
“The agents hold and explain; a person releases, asks or inspects.”
Commercial invoice RD-INV-20931 has three lines: a bike repair stand, saddle bags, and line 3 — two TrailVolt 48V 13Ah e-bike batteries, highlighted. Nothing on the booking declares them. The Invoice reader quotes the line with a confidence of 0.99, and the Risk ranker scores the hold 94 of 100, first of 23.
Risk ranker: “I recommend a physical inspection before 3:55 pm.”
The Product identifier matches SKU TV-4813 to the maker's listing: capacity 624 Wh, lithium-ion, 3.6 kg, "ships fully charged, ready to ride". It shows the working — 48 V × 13 Ah = 624 Wh per battery, over 100 Wh, so a fully regulated Class 9 battery; shipped alone, not in or with equipment, so UN 3480 under packing instruction 965. Fully charged is also over the 30% state-of-charge limit.
Dana replays the check. Each agent's step runs in view with what it read and how long it took. The Second reader re-reads the booking, invoice and listing without seeing the first reading and agrees: UN 3480, forbidden on a passenger aircraft, confidence 0.97. Had the two disagreed, both readings would have gone to Dana side by side.
“Each step is logged with the sources it read.”
Dana asks, "Is this allowed on CV 517?" The answer cites the rule and the flight: no — two 624 Wh lithium-ion batteries shipped on their own are UN 3480, forbidden on passenger aircraft; declared, packed and at 30% charge or less they could fly on a cargo-only flight. She orders a physical inspection with the reason code "Invoice names lithium batteries not declared", and Marcus Bell is notified.
Her decision is signed with a reason code and teaches the next screening.
The order tells Marcus where the piece is — ULD AKE 72104CV, build-up bay 4, Cargo Building 2 — and what to look for. He works the six-step check with a witness. From his photo the Product identifier reads the battery label: TrailVolt 48V 13Ah 624Wh Li-ion, no UN 3480 mark, no Class 9 label, no cargo-aircraft-only label, charge indicator 4 of 5 bars, about 80%.
Marcus records "undeclared dangerous goods found" with his witness and the tag DGC-1015-03; the finding is filled from the photos for him to check. The piece is offloaded, AKE 72104CV is rebuilt without it and the load plan is updated. The agents line up what happens next: the FAA notice and Form F 5800.1 drafted for the head of cargo compliance, and the legal route offered to the shipper — declare as UN 3480 and move to a cargo-only flight.
Report drafter: “Nothing goes out until the head of cargo compliance signs.”
The Report drafter has filled the 49 CFR 175.31 discrepancy report to the FAA — reporter, operator, where the shipment is, shipper, forwarder, air waybill and the nature of the discrepancy — each field cited to the booking, the inspection record or the photos. Form F 5800.1 is drafted with its 30-day clock, due Nov 14, 2026, beside the IATA occurrence report and the shipper letter. Thomas signs and sends the notice the same afternoon.
Thomas Hale: “Every field I sign has to come from the record.”
The Learning agent proposes to read the invoice for "sports equipment" and "bicycle parts" from cycling shippers: of 9 such holds in 90 days, 4 found e-bike batteries, and the description alone never named a battery. Back-tested on the last 30 days, it adds 6 holds and 2 findings it would have caught, with none missed. Renee Castillo, the cargo security manager, approves or rejects it.
Learning agent: “Back-test each one before you approve; I never switch a rule on myself.”
The same hidden shipment, seen by four of the people who stop it — what their shift looked like, and what it looks like now.
Eight specialist agents read every booking and the documents behind it, rank the holds and draft the reports; people decide and sign.
Reads every booking and air waybill as it arrives — the description in any language, HS code, handling codes, pieces, weight, shipper, consignee and flight. Vague words send it to the documents.
Reads commercial invoices, packing lists and house bills, and quotes the lines that name a regulated item.
Identifies the product from SKUs and model numbers: chemistry, volts × amp-hours = watt-hours, state of charge, UN number and packing instruction. Reads battery labels from the inspector's photos.
Brings the shipper's and forwarder's bookings, holds, findings and answers, and known-shipper status.
Scores each hold from 0 to 100, ranks by risk and minutes to cut-off, knows whether the booked aircraft carries passengers, and recommends release, ask the shipper or inspect.
Re-reads every hold from the sources without seeing the first reading, and 1 in 50 clean bookings each day; agrees or disagrees.
Drafts questions to shippers, the FAA discrepancy notice, DOT Form F 5800.1, the IATA occurrence report and letters to the shipper and forwarder from the record, and keeps the clocks.
Turns decisions and findings into proposed rule changes with their evidence, and back-tests each one on past bookings.
Decides every hold with a reason. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask in plain words on every screen — about an air waybill, a shipper, a flight, a station, a rule or the month — or tell the agents to open, filter or draft something. Every answer cites its source; nothing is released, refused or reported until a person decides.
Is this allowed on CV 517?
No. Two 624 Wh lithium-ion batteries shipped on their own are UN 3480, which is forbidden on passenger aircraft. CV 517 is a 787-9 with 296 seats. Declared, packed and at 30% charge or less, they could go on a cargo-only flight.
How sure are you?
0.97. The invoice line is unambiguous and the product listing gives 624 Wh. The Second reader reached the same answer without my reading. What would change it: if the carton held only the stand and the bags, which 22 kg makes unlikely — two batteries weigh 7.2 kg.
Why were the other 1,261 not held?
Each one was read: the description, HS code and handling code, and the shipper's record. None named or implied dangerous goods, none came from a shipper with an open finding, and the product codes we could read matched non-regulated goods. A 1-in-50 sample of clean bookings is re-read every day by the Second reader; it agreed on all 26 today.
What closes first?
CV 1418 to Denver closes first, at 3:55 pm, with two holds: camping gear (48 butane canisters) and refurbished laptops sent for battery replacement. CV 517 closes at 4:40 pm.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
When a booking holds, when an inspection is recommended and who must confirm are settings at Corvane — versioned and back-tested before they change.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Hold a booking for a person at risk | 60 of 100 | Any score from 0 to 100; versioned and back-tested |
| Recommend a physical inspection at risk | 85 of 100 | Any score from 0 to 100 |
| A second officer confirms a release above risk | 85 of 100 | Any score from 0 to 100 |
| Decide at least this long before cut-off | 45 minutes | Minutes before the station's cargo cut-off |
| Readers ask a person below confidence | 90 % | Confidence floor for the readers |
| Shipper reply clock | 60 minutes | Minutes the shipper or forwarder has to answer |
| Trigger rules | 8 families · 1,240 words · 9 languages | Lithium batteries · Gases and aerosols · Flammable liquids · Used electronics · Oxidizers · Vague descriptions · Explosives and articles · Magnetized material |
| Report clocks | FAA notice same day; Form F 5800.1 alerts at 7 and 2 days left | Clocks per role; each alert switched on or off per person |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (IATA, Safety & Security in the Cargo Supply Chain, Sept 24, 2026 — more than 80% of dangerous goods incidents reported in the first half of 2025 involved undeclared goods; FAA lithium battery incident data — 93 verified smoke, fire or extreme-heat events aboard aircraft in 2025; FAA proposed civil penalty, Sept 5, 2025 — $170,000 against one shipper). 49 CFR 175.31, 171.16 and 173.185 and IATA DGR packing instruction 965 are named as context. Corvane Airways, the shippers, forwarders, flights, air waybills and people named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Undeclared dangerous goods detection finds cargo that contains dangerous goods — most often lithium batteries — booked under an ordinary description, before it is loaded. Undeclared Dangerous Goods Detection puts eight agents in front of every booking: they read the invoice, packing list and product listing behind the doubtful ones, work out watt-hours, UN number and packing instruction, weigh the shipper's history and the aircraft, and hold only the few that need a person, with the proof.
Not from the booking alone: "sports equipment" or "phone accessories" says nothing, so lithium battery screening in air cargo has to read the documents behind the booking. The agents read the commercial invoice and the product's own listing, compute volts × amp-hours = watt-hours, and check the booked aircraft. In the working solution, an invoice line naming two 48V 13Ah e-bike batteries became a 624 Wh UN 3480 hold, ranked first of 23.
Security X-ray is built to find explosives, not the full range of dangerous goods, and the DG acceptance checklist only sees goods that are declared. IATA has said screening alone cannot solve the problem and called for more layers of checking across the supply chain. This solution adds one at the airline: it screens for misdeclared cargo on the booking and its documents, before the piece is loaded.
Under 49 CFR 175.31 the operator notifies the FAA as soon as practicable, and under 49 CFR 171.16 files DOT Form F 5800.1 within 30 days of discovering undeclared hazardous material. The Report drafter fills both, plus the IATA occurrence report and the shipper letter, with every field cited to the record and the clocks kept. The head of cargo compliance signs.
Not on their own. Lithium-ion batteries shipped alone are UN 3480 under packing instruction 965, forbidden as cargo on passenger aircraft; declared, labeled and at 30% state of charge or less they can fly on a cargo-only aircraft. The agents know the aircraft on the booked flight, so they rank the risk and propose the legal route.
Yes. The agents recommend and draft; they never release, refuse, offload, contact a shipper or file. The cargo safety officer decides every hold with a reason code, a second officer confirms releases above risk 85, the head of cargo compliance signs every regulator report, and rule changes need a back-test and an approval.
Holds rest on documents, not a word alone. On the sample data 23 of 1,284 bookings were held in a day (1.8%), and most lithium holds are released in minutes with the invoice in hand. Before go-live, the first-time setup back-tests the screening on the last 30 days to show what would have been held.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your dangerous goods procedures, word list, stations and a month of past bookings and findings — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed, after a back-test on your own last 30 days.
Spot quotes in minutes, priced to the rule and the space on the flight.
1-min demoAir Cargo Revenue ManagementEvery kilo sold at what it is worth, with the reason on every published rate.
1-min demoAir Waybill Data ValidationEvery waybill right before acceptance: fewer holds, and the bill matches the freight.
1-min demoWe'll run Undeclared Dangerous Goods Detection on a month of your own cargo bookings and the findings you already know about.