Altor guide · 2026-09-06

What ATTLA actually certifies and what your data package needs

The Shipper's Declaration is signed. The AFMAN packaging paragraph is in Key 17. The vehicle is booked on a C-17. Then the joint inspector at the air terminal asks for the ATTLA letter, and the folder does not have one.

That is a different certification. ATTLA is not the hazmat office. It is the air transportability office. A complete dangerous goods declaration does not answer whether this item can be loaded and restrained on that aircraft.

What the regulation actually requires

DoDI 4540.07, Operation of the DoD Engineering for Transportability and Deployability Program, requires DoD Component transportability agents, user representatives, and materiel developers to obtain certification for transportability problem items airlifted inside US Air Force cargo aircraft, and for cargo airdropped from those aircraft using non-standard components or procedures. The office named there is the Air Transportability Test Loading Activity, ATTLA, at AFLCMC/EZFC, Wright-Patterson AFB. DAFI 24-602V2, paragraph 1.5.3.2, assigns that office the problem-cargo certification.

What counts as a problem item sits in the DoDI 4540.07 glossary. Coordinate with the mode agent when the item exceeds any of these: length 20 feet, width 8 feet, height 8 feet, weight 10,000 pounds, 1,600 pounds per linear foot, or floor contact pressure of 50 pounds per square inch.

DAFI 24-605V2, paragraph 3.54, is the air terminal rule. For cargo that requires ATTLA certification, the shipper obtains and provides the most current ATTLA certification letters. Air terminal personnel confirm the letter before they accept the cargo. Paragraph 3.54.1 keeps the size and weight family, then adds axle loads greater than 5,000 pounds, wheel loads greater than 2,500 pounds, items that need special equipment or procedures to load or secure, unfamiliar items designed to load into the aircraft rail system, and cargo that exceeds the weight limits already stated in an approved letter. Commonly palletized outsized cargo such as pipes, wood, and helicopter blades is called out as not requiring ATTLA certification even when length is over 20 feet.

Paragraph 3.54.3 requires the letter to follow the shipment through the Defense Transportation System. Paragraph 3.54.4 is the contact if the terminal cannot tell whether a letter is required: ATTLA@US.AF.MIL.

The design standard for the airlift mode is MIL-STD-1791, Designing for Internal Aerial Delivery in Fixed Wing Aircraft. MIL-STD-1366 is the interface standard for transportability criteria across modes. DoDI 4540.07 points materiel developers at both. The data package is the evidence ATTLA uses to decide whether analysis is enough, or whether a test loading is required. Typical contents are the item in its air transport configuration: drawings or photographs, overall dimensions, weight, center of balance, rated tie-down provisions and their locations, axle and wheel loads if it rolls, floor contact pressure, and any hazardous materials that travel with the item. Army programs often route a transportability report under DI-PACK-80880 through SDDCTEA. Other Components submit to ATTLA.

Keep the two books separate. UN 1090 Acetone, Class 3, packing group II, is a hazmat line. On commercial air, the current ICAO TI Table 3-1 extract is packing instruction 353 at 5 L per package on passenger aircraft, and packing instruction 364 at 60 L on cargo aircraft. On military air certified to AFMAN 24-604, Table A4.1 for that packing group is packaging paragraph A7.2. Drums that stay under the DoDI 4540.07 thresholds are not an ATTLA problem. A vehicle over 10,000 pounds, or over 20 feet, or over 50 pounds per square inch of floor contact, is an ATTLA problem even if the tanks are empty. If that vehicle still contains regulated batteries or residual fuel, you need both the current ATTLA letter and the AFMAN or IATA declaration.

ATTLA certifies air transportability of the configured item on named aircraft. It does not classify the material, pick a packing instruction, or replace 49 CFR 173.22.

The mistake people make

Desks staple the IATA form to the vehicle and treat the item as cleared for military airlift.

They reuse a letter written for the chassis before the bumper kit, the shelter, or the generator set went on. DAFI 24-605V2, paragraph 3.54.1.9, is the weight-limit catch. A letter that states a maximum gross weight is not a letter for the heavier configuration.

They start the package the week of the lift. ATTLA is an engineering review. It is not a same-day stamp at the cargo terminal.

They treat ATTLA as the hazmat stamp. DAFI 24-605V5, Table A3.1, lists a failed check of the most current ATTLA certification letter and a failed HAZMAT validation as separate joint inspector deficiencies. Two files. Two checks.

They send a CDRL binder. That is not the air transportability package.

How to fix it

Lock the air transport configuration first. Same bumper, same shelter, same fluids state, same weight.

Read DoDI 4540.07. If the item is a transportability problem item, or it will airdrop with non-standard components or procedures, you need ATTLA certification before the aircraft, not after the discrepancy report.

Build the data package to MIL-STD-1791: dimensions, weight, center of balance, tie-down ratings and locations, drawings or photographs of this configuration, axle and wheel loads, floor contact pressure, and the hazmat that stays in the item. Submit through the Component transportability agent, or to ATTLA at AFLCMC/EZFC. Keep the current letter with the cargo through the DTS, per DAFI 24-605V2, paragraph 3.54.3.

Separately, if anything in that item is regulated, complete the Shipper's Declaration to AFMAN 24-604 or to the IATA DGR under the conditions in AFMAN Attachment 17. UN 1090 packing group II still follows the AFMAN or IATA line already cited. Do not copy either number onto the ATTLA letter.

Do not tender from a photo of last year's SKU. The inspector is grading this item against the current letter and the current hazmat rule.

Altor pre-checks completed Dangerous Goods Declarations line by line against the current regulations and returns a written report, with every finding cited, within one business day. You keep the pen. altor.consulting

Catch the rejection before the carrier does

Send your completed declaration before you tender it. A line by line advisory report comes back within 24 hours, every finding cited. $95 flat, one click, and you keep the pen.

Pre-check my DGD · $95 → All services