After a battery problem on an All Nippon Airways B787, both ANA and JAL have grounded their combined fleet of 24 Dreamliners until further notice.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21038128
Boeing really needs to get a grip soon!!!!
Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded by ANA and JAL
-
Vaqar Khan
- Registered Member
- Posts: 569
- Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2012 11:23 am
- Location: United Kingdom
-
saadm80
- Registered Member
- Posts: 532
- Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2007 12:11 pm
Re: Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded by ANA and JAL
Qatar Airways (QR) has also Grounded their Fleet of 5 B-787 Dreamliners Yesterday, Due to Directive of FAA Saying "Grounding of All 787 Flying Currently around the Globe"...
Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
-
pk363
- Registered Member
- Posts: 777
- Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:07 am
- Location: Dubai, UAE
Re: Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded by ANA and JAL
Dreamliner set to fly in a week as Boeing fixes battery
TOKYO/LONDON: Boeing began installing reinforced lithium-ion batteries on five grounded 787 jets in Japan on Monday, starting a process that should make the first commercial Dreamliners ready to fly again in about a week.
Boeing's Dreamliners have been grounded since regulators in the United States and elsewhere ordered all 50 planes out of the skies in mid-January after batteries on two of them overheated. US regulators approved a new battery design on Friday.
The grounding has cost Boeing an estimated $600 million, halted deliveries and forced some airlines to lease alternative aircraft. Several airlines have said they will seek compensation from Boeing, potentially adding to the plane maker's losses.
The first five jets to receive the new strengthened battery system all belong to All Nippon Airways, the airline that launched the first commercial Dreamliner service.
"Our first priority is to get the existing fleet back into the air," Larry Loftis, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, told European reporters.
Ten teams of some 30 engineers each have been dispatched by Boeing worldwide to install the stronger battery casing and other systems designed to prevent a repeat of the meltdowns that led to the first U.S. fleet grounding in 34 years.
The plan approved by the Federal Aviation Administration calls for Boeing to encase the lithium-ion batteries in a steel box, install new battery chargers, and add a duct to vent gases directly outside the aircraft in the event of overheating.
European authorities are expected to follow suit in approving the battery design, a spokesman for Europe's aviation safety body said.
Although the plane is deemed safe to fly, investigators in the United States and Japan have yet to unravel what caused a 787 battery onboard an ANA jet in Japan and one on another JAL Dreamliner parked at Boston's Logan Airport to overheat.
"We went to great lengths to question every assumption we made in the initial design and greatly expanded the thought process for what could be potential causes," Loftis said.
Speaking on the eve of public hearings by the US National Safety Transportation Board, Loftis said Boeing believed it had anticipated "the whole universe of possible causes" after exhaustive studies and testing to devise the battery fix.
"It is possible we will never know the real cause," he said, "If we learn anything new we will make changes as required."
Loftis said the crisis would not affect the development of other jets and would not derail Boeing's plans to double 787 production to 10 a month by the end of the year. Nor would it delay the next version of the 787, known as the 787-9.
"We aren't changing forecasts for future (787) orders because of this incident," he said.
Boeing has continued to produce Dreamliners at the rate of 5 a month during the three-month grounding. Deliveries are likely to resume within weeks, Loftis said.
Weight saving pared
The 787 is the first jetliner to be fitted with lithium-ion main power batteries, which are lighter and smaller but potentially more temperamental than the nickel-cadmium sources used on most planes. Batteries are mainly used for ground power.
Loftis said the extra steel housing and other accessories fitted to the batteries to keep them safe weighed about 150 lbs (68 kilos), cancelling out the batteries' weight savings.
Boeing gave some thought to switching back to traditional nickel-cadmium as rival Airbus has done, but found no reason to do so, he said.
Some aircraft industry sources say space limitations where the batteries are installed on the Dreamliner might have reduced Boeing's options.
ANA is the world's biggest operator of the lightweight carbon-composite aircraft with 17 of the planes. After ANA, the biggest 787 operator is local rival Japan Airlines Co with seven jets, followed by United Airlines and Air India with six each.
ANA plans about 100 to 200 round trip test flights in May of its repaired aircraft before carrying passengers again from June, sources knowledgeable about ANA's operations have said. The flights will check the safety of the aircraft, and allow ANA's 180 Dreamliner pilots to get accustomed to flying it again and renew their licenses after more than a three-month break.
ANA has not said how much the 787's grounding has cost it to date, though it has said it lost about $900,000 in revenue per plane in the last two weeks of January.
In Addis Ababa, a source at Ethiopian Airlines, which had taken delivery of four 787s before the grounding, said they could be flying in a matter of days. Boeing says each battery modification takes about 5 days to install.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... 680293.cms
TOKYO/LONDON: Boeing began installing reinforced lithium-ion batteries on five grounded 787 jets in Japan on Monday, starting a process that should make the first commercial Dreamliners ready to fly again in about a week.
Boeing's Dreamliners have been grounded since regulators in the United States and elsewhere ordered all 50 planes out of the skies in mid-January after batteries on two of them overheated. US regulators approved a new battery design on Friday.
The grounding has cost Boeing an estimated $600 million, halted deliveries and forced some airlines to lease alternative aircraft. Several airlines have said they will seek compensation from Boeing, potentially adding to the plane maker's losses.
The first five jets to receive the new strengthened battery system all belong to All Nippon Airways, the airline that launched the first commercial Dreamliner service.
"Our first priority is to get the existing fleet back into the air," Larry Loftis, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, told European reporters.
Ten teams of some 30 engineers each have been dispatched by Boeing worldwide to install the stronger battery casing and other systems designed to prevent a repeat of the meltdowns that led to the first U.S. fleet grounding in 34 years.
The plan approved by the Federal Aviation Administration calls for Boeing to encase the lithium-ion batteries in a steel box, install new battery chargers, and add a duct to vent gases directly outside the aircraft in the event of overheating.
European authorities are expected to follow suit in approving the battery design, a spokesman for Europe's aviation safety body said.
Although the plane is deemed safe to fly, investigators in the United States and Japan have yet to unravel what caused a 787 battery onboard an ANA jet in Japan and one on another JAL Dreamliner parked at Boston's Logan Airport to overheat.
"We went to great lengths to question every assumption we made in the initial design and greatly expanded the thought process for what could be potential causes," Loftis said.
Speaking on the eve of public hearings by the US National Safety Transportation Board, Loftis said Boeing believed it had anticipated "the whole universe of possible causes" after exhaustive studies and testing to devise the battery fix.
"It is possible we will never know the real cause," he said, "If we learn anything new we will make changes as required."
Loftis said the crisis would not affect the development of other jets and would not derail Boeing's plans to double 787 production to 10 a month by the end of the year. Nor would it delay the next version of the 787, known as the 787-9.
"We aren't changing forecasts for future (787) orders because of this incident," he said.
Boeing has continued to produce Dreamliners at the rate of 5 a month during the three-month grounding. Deliveries are likely to resume within weeks, Loftis said.
Weight saving pared
The 787 is the first jetliner to be fitted with lithium-ion main power batteries, which are lighter and smaller but potentially more temperamental than the nickel-cadmium sources used on most planes. Batteries are mainly used for ground power.
Loftis said the extra steel housing and other accessories fitted to the batteries to keep them safe weighed about 150 lbs (68 kilos), cancelling out the batteries' weight savings.
Boeing gave some thought to switching back to traditional nickel-cadmium as rival Airbus has done, but found no reason to do so, he said.
Some aircraft industry sources say space limitations where the batteries are installed on the Dreamliner might have reduced Boeing's options.
ANA is the world's biggest operator of the lightweight carbon-composite aircraft with 17 of the planes. After ANA, the biggest 787 operator is local rival Japan Airlines Co with seven jets, followed by United Airlines and Air India with six each.
ANA plans about 100 to 200 round trip test flights in May of its repaired aircraft before carrying passengers again from June, sources knowledgeable about ANA's operations have said. The flights will check the safety of the aircraft, and allow ANA's 180 Dreamliner pilots to get accustomed to flying it again and renew their licenses after more than a three-month break.
ANA has not said how much the 787's grounding has cost it to date, though it has said it lost about $900,000 in revenue per plane in the last two weeks of January.
In Addis Ababa, a source at Ethiopian Airlines, which had taken delivery of four 787s before the grounding, said they could be flying in a matter of days. Boeing says each battery modification takes about 5 days to install.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... 680293.cms
-
Vaqar Khan
- Registered Member
- Posts: 569
- Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2012 11:23 am
- Location: United Kingdom
Re: Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded by ANA and JAL
An Ethiopian Airlines B787 Dreamliner has flown the first commercial flight since the battery problem fix had been approved by the FAA.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22315317
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22315317
-
pk363
- Registered Member
- Posts: 777
- Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:07 am
- Location: Dubai, UAE
Re: Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded by ANA and JAL
Ethiopian Airlines first to fly 787 Dreamliner since grounding
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines on Saturday became the world's first carrier to resume flying Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, landing the first commercial flight since the global fleet was grounded three months ago following incidents of overheating in the batteries providing auxiliary power.
The flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was the first since regulators grounded all Dreamliners on January 16.
Reuters | Apr 27, 2013, 05.30PM IST
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines on Saturday became the world's first carrier to resume flying Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, landing the first commercial flight since the global fleet was grounded three months ago following incidents of overheating in the batteries providing auxiliary power.
The flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was the first since regulators grounded all Dreamliners on January 16 after two lithium-ion battery meltdowns that occurred on two jets with other airlines within two weeks that month.
US regulators approved a new battery design last week, clearing the way for installation and a resumption of Dreamliner flights by airlines around the world.
The battery faults raised fears of a possible mid-air fire, drawing worldwide attention to Boeing and denting the reputation of its flagship plane.
"I wasn't aware that I was going to be on the 787 Dreamliner until on my way to the airport. It was a good service and the flight was pleasant," said Senait Mekonnen, an Ethiopian restaurateur, moments after the plane landed.
The fully booked flight arrived at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport just after 9.30 GMT, with passengers giving the crew a round of applause upon landing.
The grounding of the Dreamliner fleet has cost Boeing an estimated $600 million, halted deliveries of the aircraft and forced some airlines to lease alternative planes.
The Dreamliner cost an estimated $20 billion to develop and represents a quantum leap forward in design, offering a 20 percent reduction in fuel burn and added cabin comforts such as higher humidity, larger windows and modern styling.
But by sparking fears of a dangerous mid-air fire, the battery problems drew worldwide attention to both aircraft safety and the technology behind lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used in laptops, mobile phones, electric cars and other products.
The scrutiny turned from what are often called normal "teething pains" for a new plane into a serious crisis for Boeing. As the plane goes back into service, what caused the fire is still unknown.
The battery that overheated on a parked Japan Airlines 787 in Boston caught fire and burned for more than hour before firefighters put it out. The plane was on the ground and empty. The second incident, which has not officially been termed a fire, occurred during a flight in Japan.
An odour of smoke in the cabin and warnings in the cockpit prompted the All Nippon Airways pilots to make an emergency landing and evacuate the aircraft. Boeing said both incidents showed its safeguards had worked.
Cause not yet found
After the second incident, airlines were swiftly barred from flying the 250-seat aircraft, which carries a list price of $207 million. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched a full-scale investigation to find the root cause of the Boston fire and examine the process by which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Boeing's design.
The NTSB has not yet found the cause, and after hearings last week the investigation continues.
The last time an airliner fleet was grounded was more than a generation ago, when the US Federal Aviation Administration banned the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 jet in 1979 after a crash in Chicago killed 273 people.
Boeing spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars redesigning the battery system, drawing on its vast staff of engineers and experts in everything from fighter planes to rockets and satellites.
The changes include a revamped battery less prone to heat build-up, a redesigned charger and a stainless-steel enclosure capable of withstanding an explosion and equipped with a metal exhaust tube to vent fumes and gases outside the jet, if the battery overheats.
International airlines have been slowly putting the Dreamliner back into their schedules. United Airlines, the only US carrier with the jet, said it will begin commercial flights on May 31. All Nippon Airways plans to conduct its first test flight of the revamped 787 on Sunday but has yet to decide when to resume passenger flights.
Ethiopian Airlines previously said its fleet did not suffer any of the technical glitches experienced by other Dreamliner jets, though it withdrew the planes from service to undergo the changes required by the FAA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... 755819.cms
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines on Saturday became the world's first carrier to resume flying Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, landing the first commercial flight since the global fleet was grounded three months ago following incidents of overheating in the batteries providing auxiliary power.
The flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was the first since regulators grounded all Dreamliners on January 16.
Reuters | Apr 27, 2013, 05.30PM IST
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Airlines on Saturday became the world's first carrier to resume flying Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, landing the first commercial flight since the global fleet was grounded three months ago following incidents of overheating in the batteries providing auxiliary power.
The flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was the first since regulators grounded all Dreamliners on January 16 after two lithium-ion battery meltdowns that occurred on two jets with other airlines within two weeks that month.
US regulators approved a new battery design last week, clearing the way for installation and a resumption of Dreamliner flights by airlines around the world.
The battery faults raised fears of a possible mid-air fire, drawing worldwide attention to Boeing and denting the reputation of its flagship plane.
"I wasn't aware that I was going to be on the 787 Dreamliner until on my way to the airport. It was a good service and the flight was pleasant," said Senait Mekonnen, an Ethiopian restaurateur, moments after the plane landed.
The fully booked flight arrived at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport just after 9.30 GMT, with passengers giving the crew a round of applause upon landing.
The grounding of the Dreamliner fleet has cost Boeing an estimated $600 million, halted deliveries of the aircraft and forced some airlines to lease alternative planes.
The Dreamliner cost an estimated $20 billion to develop and represents a quantum leap forward in design, offering a 20 percent reduction in fuel burn and added cabin comforts such as higher humidity, larger windows and modern styling.
But by sparking fears of a dangerous mid-air fire, the battery problems drew worldwide attention to both aircraft safety and the technology behind lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used in laptops, mobile phones, electric cars and other products.
The scrutiny turned from what are often called normal "teething pains" for a new plane into a serious crisis for Boeing. As the plane goes back into service, what caused the fire is still unknown.
The battery that overheated on a parked Japan Airlines 787 in Boston caught fire and burned for more than hour before firefighters put it out. The plane was on the ground and empty. The second incident, which has not officially been termed a fire, occurred during a flight in Japan.
An odour of smoke in the cabin and warnings in the cockpit prompted the All Nippon Airways pilots to make an emergency landing and evacuate the aircraft. Boeing said both incidents showed its safeguards had worked.
Cause not yet found
After the second incident, airlines were swiftly barred from flying the 250-seat aircraft, which carries a list price of $207 million. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched a full-scale investigation to find the root cause of the Boston fire and examine the process by which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Boeing's design.
The NTSB has not yet found the cause, and after hearings last week the investigation continues.
The last time an airliner fleet was grounded was more than a generation ago, when the US Federal Aviation Administration banned the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 jet in 1979 after a crash in Chicago killed 273 people.
Boeing spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars redesigning the battery system, drawing on its vast staff of engineers and experts in everything from fighter planes to rockets and satellites.
The changes include a revamped battery less prone to heat build-up, a redesigned charger and a stainless-steel enclosure capable of withstanding an explosion and equipped with a metal exhaust tube to vent fumes and gases outside the jet, if the battery overheats.
International airlines have been slowly putting the Dreamliner back into their schedules. United Airlines, the only US carrier with the jet, said it will begin commercial flights on May 31. All Nippon Airways plans to conduct its first test flight of the revamped 787 on Sunday but has yet to decide when to resume passenger flights.
Ethiopian Airlines previously said its fleet did not suffer any of the technical glitches experienced by other Dreamliner jets, though it withdrew the planes from service to undergo the changes required by the FAA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... 755819.cms
-
Vaqar Khan
- Registered Member
- Posts: 569
- Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2012 11:23 am
- Location: United Kingdom
Re: Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded by ANA and JAL
This afternoon there was another incident of fire on board a Boeing 787. The incident happened to to an Ethiopian Airlines 787 making its first commercial flight for this particular aircraft since the battery modifications following the earlier grounding of the entire B787 fleet in the world. Heathrow airport was closed for a while as fire services were involved in dealing with this incident. The airport has now re-opened.
This is going to be tough for Boeing, especially as Airbus' rival product the A350 is now in its test flying phase.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23294760
This is going to be tough for Boeing, especially as Airbus' rival product the A350 is now in its test flying phase.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23294760