Everyday airline passengers are mostly familiar with the myriad safety rules governing what we can and cannot fly with. From bullets to batteries to aerosol cans, there are rules that govern what can be carried onto planes and how. But underneath the seats, it's a whole other ballgame in the plane's belly. You might imagine your plane's cargo hold gets filled with luggage, mail, maybe some Amazon packages, and other urgent freight. But pack it up right, and there could be viruses, explosives, chemicals, and weapons flying underneath you just feet from your seat.

Pack it right, and we can fly it, say DG Air Freight

Sydney-based dangerous goods freight company DG Air Freight is one business in the business of shipping items an airline wouldn't have a bar of a regular passenger checking in. They've been packing "restricted" cargo onto planes for 25 years. The business was started by Wayne Nicholson, who had previously worked as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer for the Australian Defence Forces. So it follows that one of DG's first gigs was transporting ammunition and explosives for the Australian military.

"We can put explosives onboard an aircraft; we can put viruses onboard; we can put radioactives onboard aircraft. You just need to know how to do it," Wayne Nicholson's son and now Managing Director of DG Air Freight, Brad Nicholson, told Simple Flying. "You would be surprised at how many viruses get flown from one side of the country to the other. We are DHL for dangerous goods."

"People don't think this world exists, but it does. The big mining companies need us, the hospitals ... you've got research labs, government, defense, all of those industries rely heavily on someone being able to handle this kind of stuff."

Regulations guide the dangerous goods shipping industry

Every year, IATA updates its regulations and puts out a Dangerous Goods Regulations policy manual that deals with the shipping of dangerous goods. The manual serves as a bible for dangerous goods specialist freight companies. Inside, the manual details the types of dangerous goods (explosives, gases, flammable, toxic, oxidizing, radioactive materials, corrosive, and multiple hazard materials) and how to pack, handle and declare them safely.

"If there's anything wrong with the package or the documentation, if there is an 'i' missing or a 't' missing, the package will be rejected, the client gets charged by the airlines, and the consignment gets stopped - you get all sorts of delays happening with the cargo," says DG's Managing Director.

Freight companies like FedEx or DHL are complex because of their scale. Freight companies like DG Air Services are complex because of what they transport and the regulations they must abide by. Cross-country local dangerous goods shipping involves compliance with IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations, ICAO Technical Instructions, UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, the UN Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road, the Australian Code for the Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road and Rail, and local and state laws.

International dangerous goods shipments - and DG Air freight does those, also mean abiding by the laws and regulations of the destination country and any transit ports. Because this is not like FedEx, where you can just rock up to the local branch and drop your item into a pouch. There is also a whole raft of regulations concerning getting the dangerous goods to the airport and onto the plane.

"Dangerous goods is an area DHL doesn't want to play in, FedEx doesn't want to play in. All those companies say, 'it's just too hard for us,'" Mr Nicholson notes.

When explosives are okay on planes

DG Air Freight doesn't have its own planes. They use commercial passenger and freight airlines to get their customer's goods from A to B. It gets interesting because, if packaged right and the documentation correct, passenger airlines will happily fly dangerous goods on their scheduled services - with planeloads of passengers wiping their armrests with antiseptic wipes and all blissfully unaware of what sits beneath them.

But it's safe. It wouldn't be happening if the situation was otherwise. However, from a perception issue, some types of cargo those passengers could get the most upset about include explosives, radioactive materials, and viruses. DG Air Freight says it can ship any explosive, including but not restricted to blasting explosives, detonating cord, pyrotechnics and fireworks, shaped charges, flares, fuses, ammunition and cartridges, detonators, TNT, RDX, pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), octogen (HMX), and bulk industrial explosives like ANFO. We're not entirely sure what most of that is, but it sounds more problematic than a few loose AA batteries in your carry-on.

"Safety and compliance are our absolute priorities for all explosive logistics," says DG Air Freight in a comment that combines reassurance and a sales pitch. "The reality is that every explosive consignment is unique: our consultative approach is designed to ensure the cost-efficient arrival of your explosives without the worry, hassle, and delays which commonly affect companies."

Radioactive materials and biohazards also OK to fly

When not shipping TNT, DG Air Freight has carved out a niche as Australia's most comprehensive and secure radioactive logistics service. Someone has to do it, and it probably pays very well. The company ships radioactive materials for the mining, agricultural, medical, manufacturing, and research sectors

"Radioactive isotopes are complicated, high exposure shipments. They will usually pass through several checkpoints before being loaded on ships, planes, trucks, and trains around the world," says DG Air Freight. "A huge emphasis on employee training and contingency planning guarantees that, in the face of any obstacle, your consignment always arrives on time."

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When airlines clear COVID onto their planes

Arguably the most topical dangerous good in 2022 is COVID-19. Simple Flying asked if the COVID virus got packaged up probably, could it go into the cargo hold of a commercial airline?

"Yes," said Brad Nicholson. "There is a packing instruction that you have to abide by. It has to be in three forms on containment. It requires you to consult with the lab that's producing it, and generally, we sell them the packaging. We'll go to the lab with our packaging, and they'll put the virus into the packaging and give it back to us, and we put it into the second and third containment packages. And then we label it up, prepare the documentation, get it down to the airlines, and the airline checks it and says good to go."

So there you go. It gives a whole new meaning to flying with COVID. Airfreight is a fascinating part of the aviation industry, and the dangerous goods corner of that is a largely unknown corner of that market. That companies like DG Air Freight fly under the radar is a testament to the level of self-regulation and external regulation that keeps the dangerous good shipping industry safe and out of the news.

"Dangerous goods make up 5% of all cargo," says Mr Nicholson. "Generally, it's the highest charged cargo because of all the checks that have to be done and is the most difficult to move. You want a company like us to provide the service."