All Boeing 787 Dreamliner Grounded Following JAL Incident in Boston

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 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

If they do that, they're doing it at their own peril since the A350XWB isn't flying yet. Karma's a bitch...

[BC Tam 2]

If they do that, they're doing it at their own peril since the A350XWB isn't flying yet. Karma's a bitch...

No, no - the Airbus team already exhibited admirable self restraint from gloating about Dreamliner's recent misfortune (in public anyway)

No doubt memories of dugong's birthing pain still fresh and task of certifying another bird coming up soon - may have muted the glee, but restraint it was for all to see

No, I was referring instead to comments by JAL's chairman

[S V Choong 4]

No, no - the Airbus team already exhibited admirable self restraint from gloating about Dreamliner's recent misfortune (in public anyway)

No doubt memories of dugong's birthing pain still fresh and task of certifying another bird coming up soon - may have muted the glee, but restraint it was for all to see

No, I was referring instead to comments by JAL's chairman

 

Well Airbus better pray hard for their A350XWB, judging from their prior experience and teething problems (almost catastrophic) with the A380...

[BC Tam 2]

13 March 2013 Last updated at 10:02 GMT

 

Dreamliner battery redesign approved by FAA

Boeing's Dreamliner fleet has
been grounded while safety checks are carried out on their batteries

 

The US airline regulator has approved
a plan to redesign the lithium-ion batteries of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Boeing's plan, which it said
requires it to "conduct extensive testing and analysis".

But the FAA gave no indication of when the planes might be allowed to carry
passengers again.

 

from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21764282

 

 

So, light at end of tunnel already ?

[BC Tam 2]

Dreamliner: Boeing says 787 test flight 'went to plan'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21932955

 

Painful recuperation

[Naim 6]

RT @W7VOA: Kyodo: ANA to begin accepting reservations for flights using Boeing 787 jets.

[Naim 6]

"ANA to sell 787 tickets Monday"

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/31/national/ana-to-sell-787-tickets-monday/#.UVeEsNMZ6aw

[Naim 6]

Boeing 787 Dreamliner cleared to fly by US aviation authorities

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/19/boeing-787-dreamliner-cleared-fly-faa

[KK Lee 5]

Dreamliner: Boeing 'may never find battery fault cause'
By Will Smale

Boeing has admitted that it may never know what caused the battery malfunctions that resulted in all its 787 Dreamliner aircraft being grounded.

The admission came from Boeing's Larry Loftis, the general manager of the company's 787 division.

Replacement battery systems are now being fitted to all 50 Dreamliners that had been in operation with airlines around the world.

Boeing expects the planes to resume service in the coming weeks.

'Best practice'

On Friday, US aircraft regulators approved a revamped battery design for the aircraft, paving the way for the fleet to return to the skies.

Speaking at a media briefing in London, Mr Loftis said: "It is possible we will never know the root cause.

"It is not uncommon not to have found the single root cause. So industry best practice is to look at all the potential causes and address all of them."

The groundings of all Dreamliners in January followed two major incidents concerning the plane's two lithium-ion batteries.

Firstly, on 7 January, a battery overheated and started a fire on a Japan Airlines 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport.

Nine days later, an All Nippon Airways 787 had to make an emergency landing in Japan after a battery started to give off smoke.
'Exhaustive study'

The two lithium-ion batteries are not used when the 787 is in flight.

Mr Loftis said Boeing had addressed all "potential causes" and expected the 787 to remain popular

Instead they are operational when the plane is on the ground and its engines are not turned on, and are used to power the aircraft's brakes and lights.

Mr Loftis said Boeing had put 200,000 engineer hours into fixing the problem, with staff working round the clock.

Improved batteries are now being introduced. Mr Loftis explained that the newer batteries did not have to work so hard, and therefore operated at a cooler temperature.

In addition, the new batteries are enclosed in stainless steel boxes which have a ventilation pipe that directly goes to the outside of the plane. So Mr Loftis said that any future "rare cases" of battery failure would be "100% contained", with any smoke immediately leaving the plane.

He added: "We did an exhaustive study of potential causes, and addressed all of them. We do feel that with all the work we have done, we have tackled the potential problems."

Expanding production

A total of 300 Boeing engineers, pooled into 10 teams, have now started fitting the replacement batteries and battery systems to the 787s in service around the world, and also to those that have been built by Boeing since January.

Mr Loftis said it would take five days per plane to do the necessary work, and that it would be carried out by the order in which airlines first received the planes. For this reason, Japan's All Nippon Airlines will be the first to get its 787s fixed.

Boeing is likely to release details of how much fixing the battery problem has cost the company when it releases its latest quarterly results on Wednesday.

Mr Loftis said he did not expect the issue to have any lasting negative impact on the popularity of the Dreamliner among either airlines or passengers.

He said that Boeing had continued to make five 787s per week, and that the company was about to increase that to seven, raising output to 10 per week by the end of this year.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22251756

[Cire 0]

Unable to find the root-cause, the makers have reinforced the battery's containment instead.

[BC Tam 2]

27 April 2013 Last updated at 09:57 GMT

 

Boeing 787 Dreamliner returns to service in Ethiopia flight

This is the first Dreamlinerpassenger flight since January

 

An Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamlinerhas flown from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, the first commercial flight by the Boeingaircraft since all 787s were grounded in January.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22315317

 

Back in business

Edited April 27, 2013 by BC Tam

[Benjamin Ho 0]

If the actual root cause is not found, then this is essentially a work around, not solution.

[flee 5]

Yes, it is just like the B737 rudder actuator problem - until they find a solution, we should be prepared for more battery or electrical failures in future. Lets hope that Boeing has taken measures to ensure that should such a failure occur, there will be no life threatening danger to the aircraft.

[flee 5]

Boeing confirms new 787 battery problem in Tokyo:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-confirms-new-787-battery-problem-in-tokyo-394831/

[S V Choong 4]

Again!

[Suzanne Goh 0]

I saw this piece of news whilst I was in NRT yesterday as I was about to board JA802A heading to SIN. Talk about confidence building. Made it in one piece though

[JuliusWong 0]

I saw this piece of news whilst I was in NRT yesterday as I was about to board JA802A heading to SIN. Talk about confidence building. Made it in one piece though

Hahas!! I wonder if those airlines have live news feed which they broadcast such news on board?? Imagine what will the pax think??? 0.0

[Suzanne Goh 0]

Hahas!! I wonder if those airlines have live news feed which they broadcast such news on board?? Imagine what will the pax think??? 0.0

 

I saw this in the lounge as i was about to leave to go board the plane..... don't think anybody else noticed it though. Didn't see any concern on anybody else's face, so i tried to sleep it off Worst of all there were some heavy headwinds along the way which made the NRT-SIN leg a whole 7 hours and 30 minutes, which was longer than I'd have liked...

[BC Tam 2]

I saw this in the lounge as i was about to leave to go board the plane..... so i tried to sleep it off

So did you manage to sleep, at all ?!

[Suzanne Goh 0]

So did you manage to sleep, at all ?!

 

A bit only la. But only because 1) The crazy american woman next to me: let's call her K.J.N. (i saw her filling out her singapore immigration card) kept fidgeting and moving around and bumping stuff around. Spilled a coke on her blanket also.

 

2) Those J cradle seats on ANA only got two buttons. Recline and upright - very hard to find a comfy position. If you think MH A330 J seats are bad these are worse, cause at least on MH you got the panel with more buttons where you can fine tune the settings. This one basically lifts you up first then only reclines. It's awful.

 

But all in all, i think in terms of level of worry keeping me awake ranked from worst to least worry was 1) Madam KJN 2) The battery problem 3) the seat

[BC Tam 2]

1) The crazy american woman next to me: ..... Spilled a coke on her blanket also.

Perhaps she had just learnt about the battery problem ......

[Kenneth Chong WT 0]

Planned on taking United's 787 from Houston to SFO...but it's usd616 1 way...so expensive!

[Suzanne Goh 0]

Planned on taking United's 787 from Houston to SFO...but it's usd616 1 way...so expensive!

 

I send you a PM later - I teach you something. (may or may not work)

[Kenneth Chong WT 0]

Got it. Thanks!