All Boeing 787 Dreamliner Grounded Following JAL Incident in Boston

[flee 5]

Qatar Airways has become the latest Boeing 787 operator to ground its Dreamliner fleet in the light of a US FAA emergency airworthiness directive.

 

The Gulf carrier, which has five 787-8s in service, issued the grounding order on 17 January.

 

Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways, says: "I previously stated that Qatar Airways will only stop operating our Dreamliners if we receive such an instruction from regulators.

 

"Qatar Airways will resume 787 operations when we are clear that the aircraft meets the full requirements of the airworthiness directive and our standards which assure the safety of our passengers and crew at all times. So we are not flying the aircraft until such a time this is achieved."

 

Ethiopian Airlines remains the only 787 operator yet to confirm the status of its aircraft.

 

Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/qatar-airways-latest-carrier-to-ground-787s-381174/

[Saiful 0]

I hope the Dreamliner would not end up being called the Dreamwrecker.

 

Nightmareliner's much more like it

 

Either way it hasn't been able to live up to its name just yet.

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

Looks like Boeing Stock is in trouble. Read more stories below:

 

FAA grounds Boeing 787s to address risk of battery fires

 

Published January 17, 2013

 

WASHINGTON – The federal government grounded Boeing's newest and most technologically advanced jetliner Wednesday, declaring that U.S. airlines cannot fly the 787 again until the risk of battery fires is addressed.

The Federal Aviation Administration's emergency order affects only United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier to operate 787s. United said it would put passengers on other aircraft and work closely with the FAA and Boeing to review its fleet of six Dreamliners.

The FAA action came on the same day that Japan's two biggest airlines -- which fly almost half of the world's 50 787s -- voluntarily grounded them pending full safety checks.

The European Aviation Safety Agency ordered Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes grounded Thursday, hours after Air India grounded its fleet of six 787s.

Boeing said it was working around the clock with investigators.

"We are confident the 787 is safe, and we stand behind its overall integrity," Jim McNerney, company chairman, president and CEO said late Wednesday in a statement.

The FAA decision was another setback for a plane that was supposed to establish a new standard for jet travel but has instead been beset by one mishap after another.

The latest trouble arose when pilots for Japan's All Nippon Airways smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems on a flight from Yamaguchi Ube airport in western Japan to Tokyo. They made an emergency landing Wednesday at Takamatsu airport in western Japan, and passengers evacuated using inflatable slides.

An inspection found that a flammable liquid had leaked from the main lithium-ion battery below and slightly behind the cockpit. Investigators found burn marks around the damage. Japan's Kyodo News agency quoted a transport ministry investigator as saying that the liquid leaked through the electrical room floor to the outside of the aircraft. The transport ministry said the leak could have led to an accident.

That followed a Jan. 7 battery fire on a parked Japan Airlines plane at Boston Logan that took firefighters 40 minutes to extinguish. Both incidents involved the same type of battery, raising worries that they may be connected and that the jet's electrical problems are more dangerous than previously thought.

"Anytime you have a fire on board -- whether it's the battery that has caused it or a passenger that caused it or another electrical component -- that's a very a serious situation on an aircraft and something not to be taken lightly," said Kevin Hiatt, president of the Flight Safety Foundation.

So far, no one has suggested that the plane's fundamental design can't be fixed. But it's unclear how much will need to be changed.

The remedy could range from relatively quick-and-easy improvements to more extensive changes that could delay deliveries just as Boeing is trying to speed production up from five planes per month to 10.

The 787 is the first plane to make extensive use of lithium-ion batteries, which have been the focus of concerns in the past for their potential to catch fire. The FAA issued a special rule for their use in the 787. The plane has two batteries -- the main one near the front and a second one in the rear.

Boeing and the airlines will need to move quickly to determine whether the problem is a flaw in the batteries themselves, in the plane's wiring or in some other area that's fundamental to the plane's electrical system.

Boeing has booked orders for more than 800 of the planes from airlines around the world attracted by its increased fuel efficiency.

The jet's lightweight design makes it more of a fuel-sipper, and it's so lightweight in part because it uses electricity to do things that other airplanes do with hot air vented through internal ducts. So a 787 with electrical problems is like a minivan that won't haul kids. It goes to the heart of what the thing was built to do.

Before it carried paying passengers, the 787 was closely reviewed by inspectors from Boeing and the FAA.

Mike Sinnett, chief engineer on the 787, said last week that the plane's batteries have operated through a combined 1.3 million hours and never had an internal fault. He said they were built with multiple protections to ensure that "failures of the battery don't put the airplane at risk."

The lithium-ion design was chosen because it's the only type of battery that can take a large charge in a short amount of time.

Neither GS Yuasa Corp., the Japanese company that supplies the batteries for the 787, nor Thales, which makes the battery charging system, would comment on the recent troubles.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways are two of the 787's biggest customers.

ANA was especially proud of its 787 fleet. Its executives' business cards and the top of its website read "787" and "We fly 1st." ANA got the first one Boeing delivered in late 2011, more than three years late.

Other 787s have had problems with certain electrical panels and fuel leaks.

Back on Jan. 9, ANA canceled a domestic flight to Tokyo after a computer wrongly indicated there was a problem with the 787's brakes. Two days later, the carrier reported two new problems with the aircraft -- a minor fuel leak and a cracked cockpit windscreen.

Many of the 787s problems are typical of well-established planes around the world, Hiatt said, adding that he would have no qualms about flying aboard a 787.

"That airplane is the most scrutinized plane in the air," he said. "I would get on the airplane tomorrow."

Hours before the FAA announced its emergency order, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood dismissed any doubts about the FAA's diligence in certifying the plane.

"Our people are the best, but we need to work with Boeing and to make sure everything we've done has been done correctly," he told reporters Wednesday at a luncheon in Washington.

The FAA's decision canceled plans by LOT Polish Airlines to begin regular 787 service between Chicago's O'Hare Airport and Warsaw. The inaugural flight was due to land at O'Hare late Wednesday, but the airline called off the return trip.

Boeing was already under scrutiny for last week's fire, which was also tied to the battery in the back of the plane.

That fire prompted investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, and the FAA later said it would review the design and manufacture of the plane, focusing on its electrical systems.

The NTSB said Wednesday that it would send an investigator to Japan to join the latest probe, and that representatives from the FAA and Boeing were on their way, too.

United frequent flier Josh Feller said he changed his plans to fly a United 787 from Los Angeles to Houston next month because of the 787's troubles.

"I've been following the 787 news closely, and the latest incident finally spooked me into changing my flight," he said by email. "It's an unnecessary risk, and since I was going out of my way to fly the plane in the first place, decided to change flights."

Boeing shares dropped $2.60, or 3.4 percent, to close Wednesday at $74.34, and the selloff continued in after-hours trading.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/17/faa-grounds-boeing-787s-to-address-risk-battery-fires/#ixzz2IFKTuomi

[JuliusWong 0]

All B787 are now grounded. http://www.ch-aviation.ch/blog/2013/01/17/current-status-of-b787-8-operations/

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

It’s really a blow for Boeing Co.!

[xtemujin 0]

NTSB photos of the burned auxiliary power unit battery from a JAL Boeing 787 that caught fire on Jan. 7 at Boston's Logan International Airport. The dimensions of the battery are 19x13.2x10.2 inches and it weighs approximately 63 pounds (new).

 

http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/2013/boeing_787/boeing_787.html

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

Qantas Reduces Dreamlineer Order To 14

By Neville D'Cruz

MELBOURNE, Jan 18 (Bernama) -- Qantas Airlines has reduced its order for the Boeing 787 Dreamliners for its Jetstar subsidiary to 14, as it prepares for slower growth on its long-haul routes.

Jetstar, which competes with Malaysia-based Air Asia X and Singapore Airlines-backed Scoot for low-cost, long-haul passengers, is still expected to pick up its first Dreamliner this year.

Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said plans for Jetstar to continue growing has not changed.

"While the plan is for Jetstar's long-haul network to keep expanding, we are using the flexibility in our agreement with Boeing to cancel a firm order knowing that we can replace it with one of our 50 options for this aircraft down the track, and with a full view of what market conditions are like at the time," Joyce said in a statement.

With Qantas' 50 options to buy Boeing 787-8 and the larger 787-9 aircraft from 2016, the airline group could still put a 15th Dreamliner in the Jetstar fleet if it wished to and if conditions supported more growth at Jetstar.

The decision to reduce its 787 order was made late 2012, Qantas said, before the Dreamliner's grounding by regulators in the US on Thursday and an investigation into the aircraft's lithium ion battery.

Joyce said Qantas remained firmly committed to the Dreamliner and was confident current technical issues would be resolved by Boeing.

Meanwhile, Qantas said it was leasing a further five Boeing 717 aircraft and Bombardier Q400 turboprops, due to arrive in the second half of the year, to support more regional flying.

Qantas said the changes would have no impact on the company's planned capital expenditure, expected to be around A$1.8 billion in 2012/13 and A$1.9 billion in 2013/14.

-- BERNAMA

[Cire 0]

I read that the batteries the size slightly smaller than a car's battery proofed to be the Achilles heel of the 787. It's manufactured by Japan's leading battery maker - Yuasa GS which also produces for EV.

The heat generated by the 6 powerful generators could be too much for the 2 batteries to handle. Heat dispersion could be an issue that caused the melt down. It was reported that these generators are so efficient that it could power 500 houses as compared to the previous model which could muster a fifth of the power output.

The main goal now is how to dissipate heat away from the batteries which is highly combustion when a fire broke out as it produces O2 that aid burning.

 

Tricky but not impossible temporarily solution would be to revert back to the conventional batteries, but this would mean defeating the aircraft's main goal of having a high fuel efficiency.

[flee 5]

Boeing probe focuses on battery, 787 deliveries halted

 

U.S. and Japanese aviation safety officials finished an initial investigation of a badly damaged battery from a Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner jet on Friday as Boeing said it was halting deliveries until the battery concerns were resolved.

 

Boeing said it would continue building the carbon-composite 787, but deliveries were on hold until the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approved and implemented a plan to ensure the safety of potentially flammable lithium-ion batteries that prompted a widespread grounding of the new airplane this week.

 

In Washington, the top U.S. transportation official, Ray LaHood, said the 787 would not fly until regulators were "1,000 percent sure" it was safe. A week earlier, LaHood said he would not hesitate to travel on a Dreamliner.

 

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing joined Japanese authorities looking into what caused warning lights to go off this week on an All Nippon Airways Co domestic flight, prompting the aircraft to make an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport in western Japan.

 

The incident prompted regulators in the United States and around the world to ground the 50 Dreamliners in service. [iD:nL1E9CH8CJ] The jet has been flying safely for 15 months, carrying more than 1 million passengers, but it has run into problems in recent weeks, including problems with fuel leaks.

 

The biggest safety concerns centered on its lithium-ion batteries, which are lighter than conventional batteries, pack more energy and are faster to recharge, but are also potentially flammable.

 

When the FAA announced the grounding of all six U.S.-operated 787s on Wednesday, the agency said airlines would have to show the batteries were safe and in compliance with its rules. It said both battery failures released flammable chemicals, heat damage and smoke - all of which could damage critical systems on the plane and spark a fire in the electrical compartment.

 

A Japanese safety official at Takamatsu airport told reporters that excessive electricity may have overheated the battery and caused liquid to spill out. Pictures released by investigators of the battery showed a burnt-out blue metal box with clear signs of liquid seepage.

 

GS Yuasa Corp, the Japanese firm that makes batteries for the Dreamliner, said it sent three engineers to Takamatsu to help the investigation.

 

A person at the company, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said: "Our company's battery has been vilified for now, but it only functions as part of a whole system. So we're trying to find out exactly where there was a problem within the system."

 

An official with Thales, the French company that makes control systems for the battery, referred all questions to Boeing.

 

At a news conference, the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) said the charred battery and the systems around it would be sent to Tokyo for more checks. It said there were similarities with an earlier battery fire on a Japan Airlines Co 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport.

 

"This information will go to Boeing and the FAA. They will assess it" before allowing the 787 to fly again in Japan, said Hideyo Kosugi, a JTSB inspector. He said the JTSB aimed to issue a report within a week but the U.S. review might take longer.

 

LaHood, the U.S. transportation secretary, said Friday he could not predict when the 787 would resume flight.

 

"So those planes aren't flying now until we really have a chance to examine the batteries ... That seems to be where the problem is," said LaHood, who told a news conference on January 11 he would not hesitate to fly on the plane himself.

 

When pressed by reporters on Friday about whether he regretted his prior statements, LaHood said, "Last week it was safe." What has changed since then, he said, is the fact that another incident occurred involving the batteries.

 

Karen Walker, editor of Air Transport World magazine, said La Hood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta chose to "stand side by side" with Boeing executives and underscore the plane's safety because of its huge importance to the U.S. economy as the first all-new American airliner in two decades.

 

"However, the joint statements of safety confidence and lack of an (airworthiness directive) until after a second serious incident ... could potentially hurt Huerta and LaHood," she wrote.

 

Boeing shares fell 0.3 percent to $75.04. Since the recent spate of issues began in early December, the stock is up 1.4 percent, against a gain of 5.4 percent for the S&P 500 over the same period.

 

Shares in the Kyoto-based battery maker GS Yuasa rose as much as 3.9 percent on Friday, having dropped around 18 percent since the January 7 battery fire in the auxiliary power unit (APU) of the JAL plane at Boston.

 

The U.S. investigation into that incident is focused on the Japanese-made batteries, with no indication the APU - built by United Technologies Corp's Pratt & Whitney - was involved, said a person familiar with the government probe, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

 

Mark Rosenker, a former NTSB chairman, said Boeing conducted over 1.3 million hours of testing before deciding the lithium-ion batteries were safe to use on the 787, and the company had to satisfy additional rigorous tests to be granted a "special condition" by the FAA to use the batteries.

 

"I don't believe there was corner cutting in any way. I believe the FAA has done a good job in its certification process. And Boeing is a very formidable and extremely careful airplane manufacturer. You don't survive in this business by not making safe, efficient and reliable planes," he said.

 

BIGGEST MARKET

Japan is the biggest market so far for the 787, with ANA and JAL operating 24 of the 290-seat wide-bodied planes, which have a list price of $207 million. Boeing has orders for close to 850 of the planes.

 

Goldman Sachs estimated the hit to ANA's annual operating profit could be up to $40 million if the grounding of its 17 Dreamliners drags on through March. The plane makes up close to a tenth of ANA's fleet and is crucial to its growth strategy.

 

ANA cancelled more than 60 domestic and international flights through Monday, affecting more than 10,000 passengers. JAL has cancelled 8 Dreamliner flights on its Tokyo-San Diego route until January 25. Other flights will switch to older planes.

 

A spokesman for the airline said ANA remained committed to the Dreamliner and would spare no effort to get it back in the air safely.

 

Australia's Qantas Airways said it cancelled an order for one of 15 Dreamliners earmarked for its budget arm Jetstar. It said the decision to cancel was taken late last year, before the plane's recent problems. Qantas has options to order 50 of the new generation aircraft.

 

Separately, Japan's transport ministry said a fuel leak on another JAL-operated 787 last week was due to a malfunction in a drive mechanism that controls a valve. It said the British company that makes the valve was investigating. The ministry declined to name the firm.

 

BAD BATCH?

The use of new battery technology is among the cost-saving features of the 787, which Boeing says burns 20 percent less fuel than rival jetliners using older technology.

 

Hans Weber, president of TECOP International Ltd, a San Diego-based aviation consulting firm and former FAA adviser, said the incidents could be linked to a bad batch of batteries.

 

"We have to consider the suppliers were at one time producing a lot of equipment for the 787 and then everything got delayed, so some of the stuff they built has been sitting on the shelf for a while. Some of these might have been produced early in the production process and there may have been some deficiencies in the production process," he said.

 

The 787, a leap in aircraft design, has been plagued by cost overruns and years of delays, though orders last year helped Boeing overtake rival Airbus as the world's largest manufacturer of passenger jets.

 

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/19/us-boeing-dreamliner-idUSBRE90F1N820130119

[KK Lee 5]

Battery problem will be solved, but it will take time to test operating limits to satisfy FAA.

[flee 5]

Japan: Over-charging preceded ANA 787 battery malfunction

 

Japanese safety investigators have determined an All Nippon Airways 787 lithium-ion main battery malfunctioned after being over-charged, forcing the widebody to make an emergency landing on 16 January and triggering a global grounding of the fleet still in effect.

 

The 32V battery overheated and sprayed burning electrolytes in a compartment beneath the cockpit because it received a charge exceeding its design limit, Japan aviation safety agency investigator Hideo Kosugi told reporters in a press conference near the damaged aircraft still parked at Takamatsu airport.

 

The Japanese agency displayed images of the damaged battery box, revealing a charred interior weighing about 4kg (8.82lb) less than an undamaged unit. Photos at the scene also showed exhaust marks blackening the side of the 787 from a vent hole the battery compartment.

 

The finding raised hopes that Boeing would soon identify the root cause and start working on implementing a solution that could allow the global fleet to return to flight within days.

 

Ray LaHood, US Secretary of Transportation, declined, however, to make any promises when speaking to reporters. "This is complicated because we want to make sure we get it right," he says. "The flying public expects us to get it right. It's going to take a bit of time."

 

In the most optimistic scenario, Boeing would find that the ANA malfunction over Japan and the Japan Airlines battery explosion and fire in Boston on 7 January were both caused by manufacturing errors. More problematic would be a design error that would require a redesign effort and re-certification.

 

Jim McNerney, chief executive of Boeing, repeated in a letter to employees late on 18 January that he stands by the integrity of the aircraft.

 

"In short, in the days ahead, we will take the steps necessary to assure our customers and their passengers of the 787's safety and to return the airplanes to service," he says.

 

Airlines have responded to the grounding crises with mixed reactions. Poland's LOT and Air India have both issued calls to receive compensation from Boeing. United Airlines, meanwhile, said the 787 grounding can be easily managed within the carrier's fleet of 700 aircraft.

 

The over-charging problem will have to be addressed by the Thales Group-selected team supplying the 787's electrical power conversion system, which includes GS Yuasa providing the lithium ion batteries and Meggitt subsidiary Securaplane offering the battery charger unit - a device also designed to control the voltage running to the battery. Thales is the supplier of the overall system, but the task of integration is performed by Boeing.

 

Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/japan-over-charging-preceded-ana-787-battery-malfunction-381268/

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

Air India to seek compensation for Boeing 787 grounding

 

By Cuckoo Paul | January 18, 2013

 

India’s minister for civil aviation Ajit Singh said Friday that Air India would seek “some kind of compensation” for the grounding of its six Boeing 787 aircraft. Speaking to journalists in Delhi, Singh said the matter will be taken up later. The priority is to find clarity on the problems that have led to the grounding of the aircraft around the world, he said.

 

The minister said there is no re-thinking on taking deliveries of the remaining planes on order. Air India has 27 of the aircraft on order, six of which have been delivered.

 

Air India has begun using the aircraft on its international routes out of Delhi and Mumbai, replacing the larger Boeing 777.

 

Meanwhile, Air India officials expect to receive an interim report from Boeing and the US FAA in a day or two on their probe into the Dreamliner’s problems. This may give us an idea of how long the aircraft will stay grounded, they said.

 

Source: ATW

[nrazmoor 0]

Slighly related to the topic

 

Airbus maker raises average list price by 3.6%

 

PETALING JAYA: It would cost more for airlines to buy Airbus aircraft in the future since the European plane maker has raised its average list price by 3.6%. Its announcement comes at a time when its United States rival, Boeing, is battling to investigate battery-related problems for its much-heralded B787 Dreamliner.

 

According to the new list price, the A380-800 would now cost US$403.9mil (RM1.22bil), A320neos US$100.2mil, A320 US$91.5mil, A350-800 US$254.3mil and A330-300 US$239.4mil.

 

source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/1/19/business/12599085&sec=business

 

 

But what really interesting about this article came from this statement

 

The two local airlines AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) have no Dreamliner in their fleet, although at one point, MAS was exploring the aircraft as a replacement for its B777 aircraft.

Those in the know claim that the airline had, in fact, sent out a request for proposal (RFP) at the end of last year. This, however, was too short a notice for manufacturers to respond. Realising this, it pulled back its RFP and is said to be reworking one for a suitable aircraft to replace the B777s, which are already 15 years old.

 

Edited January 19, 2013 by nrazmoor

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

Posted 09 June 2012 - 10:06 AM

According to Boeing's website Lion Air has selected the 787 for their subsidiary Batik Air.

 

"JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Boeing (NYSE: BA) confirms that Jakarta-based Lion Air announced a commitment to order five 787 Dreamliners for its newly launched premium carrier Batik Air. When finalized, the agreement will be worth $967.5 million at list prices."

 

Source: http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=2285

 

Leeham news reports that these B787s are very early overweight 787s (Line #4 to Line #19) which are rejected by their original customers. (http://leehamnews.wo...pact-on-boeing/)

 

 

I wonder Lion Air subsidiary Batik Air still want to go ahead with their 787 order plan.

[flee 5]

I wonder Lion Air subsidiary Batik Air still want to go ahead with their 787 order plan.

It was mentioned that these B787s will go to Malindo. Not sure if that is still the plan, since Malindo is rather quiet about announcing its plans despite a March 2013 launch date.

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

Well, still long way for Pak Rusdi to decide. Expected delivery for the 787 is in 2015.

[Cire 0]

6 powerful generators channeling its electricity into 2 batteries the size of an ordinary car battery each could well explain the overheating issue.

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

NTSB: JAL battery did not overcharge; ANA, JAL cancel 787 flights to Jan. 28

 

By Karen Walker | January 21, 2013

 

The battery used to start the auxiliary power unit (APU) on the Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 787 that caught fire did not overcharge, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board.

 

In a detailed third update on its investigation into the Jan. 7 fire aboard the JAL Dreamliner while it was parked at Boston Logan Airport, NTSB said examination of flight recorder data indicates the APU battery did not exceed its designed voltage of 32 volts.

The lithium ion battery has become a focus area of the JAL investigation and another investigation into a separate Jan. 16 incident involving an All Nippon Airways (ANA) 787, which had to make an emergency landing in Japan and also appears to have suffered a battery malfunction.

 

In its update on the JAL incident, NTSB said, “The battery was X-rayed and CT scans were generated of the assembled battery. The investigative team has disassembled the APU battery into its eight individual cells for detailed examination and documentation. Three of the cells were selected for more detailed radiographic examination to view the interior of the cells prior to their disassembly. These cells are in the process now of being disassembled and the cell's internal components are being examined and documented.

 

“Investigators have also examined several other components removed from the airplane, including wire bundles and battery management circuit boards. The team has developed test plans for the various components removed from the aircraft, including the battery management unit (for the APU battery), the APU controller, the battery charger and the start power unit.”

 

NTSB added that on Tuesday, the investigative team will meet in Arizona to test and examine the battery charger and download nonvolatile memory from the APU controller. Several other components have been sent for download or examination to Boeing’s facility in Seattle and manufacturer facilities in Japan.

 

The Japan Transport Safety Board is leading the ANA investigation, with assistance from NTSB. Similarly, JTSB officials have joined the NTSB-led JAL inquiry.

 

Meanwhile, ANA and JAL have both announced their 787 schedule cancellations have been extended through Jan. 28.

 

ANA, which was the 787 launch customer and operates 17 Dreamliners, said the total number of 787 flights it has been forced to cancel since the Jan. 16 incident now stands at 320 domestic and 51 international, with more than 50,000 passengers affected.

 

Flights of all 50 787s operated by eight carriers worldwide have been suspended; FAA grounded the aircraft after the ANA incident, although both Japanese carriers had already suspended flights by then.

 

Source: ATW

[khairuddin abu hanifah 0]

NTSB chairman expresses serious concern about 787’s safety

 

By Aaron Karp | January 24, 2013

 

he Japan Airlines Boeing 787 lithium ion battery that caught fire in Boston Jan. 7 experienced “a thermal runaway” and “short circuits,” the US National Transportation Safety Board(NTSB) reported.

 

NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman, briefing reporters in Washington DC on Thursday, said no cause for the fire has been determined, and indicated NTSB may still need some time to find the root cause.

 

She described thermal runaway as “uncontrolled chemical reactions” within the battery’s cells. The battery is used to start the aircraft’s auxiliary power unit (APU). “The APU battery was spilling molten electrolytes,” she said.

 

Hersman expressed serious concern about the JAL 787 fire and what she characterized as the All Nippon Airways 787“smoke event” that occurred Jan. 16. The ANA incident, which led to an emergency landing, is also linked to a damaged lithium ion battery.

 

Having two battery failures causing fire and/or smoke aboard a new aircraft type within such a short period “is an unprecedented event. We are very concerned,” she commented. “This is a very serious air safety concern.”

 

Hersman said, “The expectation in aviation is never to experience a fire aboard an aircraft … The significance of these two events cannot be overstated … These events should not happen as far as the design of the aircraft. There are multiple systems that are in place to prevent [a battery failure from escalating to a serious event]. Those systems did not work.”

 

She emphasized that FAA, not NTSB, will decide if and when to lift the worldwide grounding of Dreamliners. But she indicated NTSB’s investigation into the JAL 787 fire may take some time.

 

“We have to understand why this battery failure resulted in a fire when there were so many protections designed into the system,” she said. “There’s a lot more work to do … We are conducting a forensic investigation … It is really very hard at this point to tell how long the investigation will take. What I can tell you is that we have all hands on deck … This is not something we’re expecting will be resolved overnight … We are prepared to do the methodical work that gets to the root cause of this. We have not yet identified the sequence of events that initiated the short circuits or the thermal runaway.”

 

Source: ATW

[Cire 0]

Okay, priliminary investigations ruled out over-charging as the cause of the heating/melt-down. According to some news article, the batteries are sent to Japan's space and aeronautical centre for detailed analysis.

GS Yuasa will take apart the batteries to systematically identify and cross out possibilities.

 

Isn't it baffling that a machine of such huge proportion are "floored" or rather tacmac-ed by just a pair of book shelf batteries.

 

It will be an extreme break-through findings if GS Yuasa or other scientist managed to isolate and resolve the problem as the solution/s I believe will also applies to all other lithium-ion batteries - stabilizing the heat.

[Cire 0]

Washington (CNN) -- After three weeks on the ground, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner soon will return to the skies -- but only so engineers can test the plane's troubled electrical and battery systems, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.

The FAA approved test flights for the Boeing planes with strict conditions to assure safety: Only essential personnel will be on board, crews must continuously monitor the plane for battery-related problems and tests will be conducted over unpopulated areas.

"These flights will be an important part of our efforts to ensure the safety of passengers and return these aircraft to service," the agency said.

Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said in a statement that the company is "confident" the tests could be conducted safely, and said one Boeing aircraft has been designated for the test.

Although there are only 50 Dreamliners in service worldwide, the stakes are high for the world's largest aircraft manufacturer. Following a difficult development, Boeing has several hundred 787s on order at roughly $200 million apiece.

The Dreamliner is the first commercial aircraft to have extensive use of novel lithium-ion batteries, which can hold more electrical power in a smaller, lighter space.

Dreamliner battery type requires safeguards, safety advocate says

The FAA announcement comes on the same day the National Transportation Safety Board told reporters it had identified the exact battery cell that first short-circuited on a plane in Boston in early January, but still had not determined the root cause of the electrical short.

It listed among the possibilities a manufacturing flaw, a design defect or problems with external systems that charge and discharge the battery.

The safety board also said it is placing under the microscope Boeing's testing program, which led to the certification of the lithium-ion batteries for the plane.

Those tests apparently led the airplane builder to greatly underestimate the chances of battery failure, the safety board said.

Boeing had estimated a "smoke" event would occur "less than once in 10 million flight hours" with the batteries, Deborah Hersman, the safety board's chairman, said.

But two batteries failed after fewer than 100,000 hours of actual flight, one leading to a fire aboard the 787 on the ground in Boston.

Further, Boeing's indications that heat damage in one battery cell would not harm adjacent cells proved false, Hersman said.

"The assumptions used to certify the battery must be reconsidered," Hersman said.

Hersman's statements cast doubt on the safety of the battery technology and the FAA's certification process for approving technology.

It also appeared to dispel any hopes for a quick resolution to the problem, which has led to the grounding of the Dreamliner fleet globally since Jan. 16.

The safety board plans to release an interim report of its findings within 30 days.

The FAA -- the ultimate arbiter of when the plane can resume flying -- has declined to predict when the 787 will return to commercial service.

Speaking about the January 7 fire in Boston, Hersman said the plane's flight data recorder showed the battery underwent an unexplained drop in voltage from 32 volts to 28 immediately before the incident, as the plane was being serviced on the tarmac. The voltage drop was consistent with the charge of a single cell on the eight-cell battery, she said.

Hersman said investigators believe the problem originated in cell six, which shows multiple signs of a short circuit -- an unintended path of electricity. The short circuit resulted in a thermal runaway -- a chemical chain reaction -- in cell six, which spread to adjacent cells.

"Charred battery components indicated that the temperature inside the battery case exceeded 500 degrees," Hersman said.

But investigators still don't know what caused cell six to short-circuit in the first place.

They have ruled out two possibilities -- mechanical "impact" damage, like that caused by being dropped, or short-circuiting outside the battery.

But several other possibilities are being explored, including contamination or defect during manufacturing, flaws in the design or construction of the battery, and problems with battery charging. That final possibility -- battery charging -- leaves open the possibility that the problem could reside outside the battery itself.

When the FAA approved the use of the lithium-ion batteries on the Dreamliner, it imposed nine "special conditions" that were designed to prevent or mitigate problems.

In a joint statement on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta reiterated that they are determined to fix the problem.

"Based on what information our experts find, the FAA will take any action necessary to further ensure safety. We must finish this work before reaching conclusions about what changes or improvements the FAA should make going forward," the statement read.

"The FAA is focused on the review and activities to understand the root cause. Once the review is complete, the FAA will make any analysis and conclusions public."

[KK Lee 5]

ANA discovers Dreamliner wiring problem

 

 

Japan's Transport Ministry said that an investigation into the overheating of a lithium ion battery in an All Nippon Airways (ANA) Boeing 787 discovered it had been improperly wired.

 

The Transport Safety Board said that the battery of the aircraft's auxiliary power unit (APU) was incorrectly connected to the main battery that overheated.

 

However, it added that a protective valve would have prevented power from the APU from doing any damage.

 

The safety board said that more analysis was needed to determine what had caused the plane's main battery to overheat and emit the smoke which forced the emergency landing of the ANA domestic flight and the worldwide grounding of Boeing 787 jets.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ana-discovers-dreamliner-wiring-problem-8504024.html

 

 

[alberttky 0]

The chairman of Japan Airlines (JAL), which has had to ground its entire fleet of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft after a battery fire, told CNBC he had reservations from the start on relying on one vendor.

 

 

Chairman Kazuo Inamori told CNBC: "When I first became chairman of JAL in February 2010 I found out that 100 percent of Japan aircraft were made by Boeing - I felt that was abnormal."

He added, "In a normal market there is tremendous risk from relying on one vendor. In order to provide good products at good prices, at lower prices a dual vendor system is a must."

The carrier operates 7 of the 50 Dreamliners in service around the world and its entire fleet of 217 aircraft comes from Boeing.

The JAL chairman said he was involved in discussions about introducing another vendor when the accident occurred in January.

"This is not to say there was anything wrong with Boeing but a dual vendor situation is preferable. We were just in the midst of deliberating on this when this thing happened," he said.

"We should have been much, much more careful. The only consolation is that there has been no grave accident," he added.

 

All Boeing 787 Dreamliners have been out of action since early January, while U.S. and Japanese investigators look into the cause of two incidents associated with the plane's lithium-ion batteries.

 

The incidents included a battery fire on a JAL 787 aircraft at a U.S. airport and an emergency landing by another plane on a domestic Japanese All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight after battery problems triggered a smoke alarm. ANA owns 17 Dreamliners.

 

Inamori said balancing the risk of testing out new technologies with safety regulations was a challenge specific to the aviation industry.

 

"It is unacceptable to jump at every advance of new technological breakthrough. Technology used in aviation must be proficient, endurable and confirmed to be extremely reliable," he added.

 

The 787 model is the first aircraft to make extensive use of lithium-ion batteries. The batteries, which are manufactured by Japan manufacturer GS Yuasa are lighter, more powerful and charge more quickly.

 

Both JAL and ANA have since moved to seek compensation from Boeing for the grounding of the 787 Dreamliner jets and consequent loss of revenue. However, both airlines remain committed to using the jets in the future.

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100488815

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

I don't think a single vendor's should be wholly blamed - if you have a good contingency plan then it wouldn't have been a problem.

[BC Tam 2]

You can be much assured there will be popping of champagne corks, high fives and generous back slapping over at John Leahy's corner