Narrative:

Upon landing from my last flight at I was notified that my next flight time had changed to an hour earlier. I then expedited loading my plane with cargo and calling for fuel. I found my cart of passenger bags and freight and proceeded to load it on my aircraft. I noticed one of the boxes had hazmat paperwork on it. I took out the paperwork and read that it was a battery. I signed the paperwork and took my copy. I inspected the box and found that there was only a corrosive sticker on it. It did not have orientation arrows nor did it have a sticker saying cargo aircraft only. I proceeded to put it on its side and put it in the nose compartment. I loaded the rest of my bags and gathered my passengers for an on time departure. Upon arrival I noticed that the box had leak what appeared to be battery acid. There was a small amount of acid on the board on the bottom of the nose compartment and a few drops that fell on me while unloading. I wiped the board and inspected underneath to find only a trace amount of acid. I flushed the area with water to neutralize any acid that may remain. I consulted with the senior pilot that was riding back on the flight about the situation and asked what I should do. He suggested flushing with some more water before departing to return back to our maintenance base. While flushing the cargo area I noticed that as soon as I poured water into the compartment it was draining out from a hole underneath the fuselage. I deemed the aircraft to be airworthy condition and flew home. The event occurred for a number of reasons. The most important being that I did not read over the hazmat paperwork carefully enough to see that it was a cargo only aircraft item. Also the box was improperly marked with only a corrosive sticker. It did not have orientation arrows nor did it hazmat paperwork. As well as when receiving hazmat the boxes should be inspected and marked with the appropriate stickers.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air taxi pilot mistakenly carried a mislabeled and restricted battery as cargo on a passenger flight. Also because of incomplete labeling the battery was not kept upright and acid dripped into the cargo area.

Narrative: Upon landing from my last flight at I was notified that my next flight time had changed to an hour earlier. I then expedited loading my plane with cargo and calling for fuel. I found my cart of passenger bags and freight and proceeded to load it on my aircraft. I noticed one of the boxes had HAZMAT paperwork on it. I took out the paperwork and read that it was a battery. I signed the paperwork and took my copy. I inspected the box and found that there was only a corrosive sticker on it. It did not have orientation arrows nor did it have a sticker saying cargo aircraft only. I proceeded to put it on its side and put it in the nose compartment. I loaded the rest of my bags and gathered my passengers for an on time departure. Upon arrival I noticed that the box had leak what appeared to be battery acid. There was a small amount of acid on the board on the bottom of the nose compartment and a few drops that fell on me while unloading. I wiped the board and inspected underneath to find only a trace amount of acid. I flushed the area with water to neutralize any acid that may remain. I consulted with the senior pilot that was riding back on the flight about the situation and asked what I should do. He suggested flushing with some more water before departing to return back to our maintenance base. While flushing the cargo area I noticed that as soon as I poured water into the compartment it was draining out from a hole underneath the fuselage. I deemed the aircraft to be airworthy condition and flew home. The event occurred for a number of reasons. The most important being that I did not read over the HAZMAT paperwork carefully enough to see that it was a cargo only aircraft item. Also the box was improperly marked with only a corrosive sticker. It did not have orientation arrows nor did it HAZMAT paperwork. As well as when receiving HAZMAT the boxes should be inspected and marked with the appropriate stickers.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.