Jul 14
Jul 13
A bittersweet moment for Boeing today as it’s been declared by investigators that yesterday’s fire aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner that occurred at London’s Heathrow airport was unrelated to the plane’s battery. While it’s good news that the redesigned battery isn’t failing again, it seems Boeing still has an issue with the new plane.
Britain’s Air Accident Investigation Branch released a statement on the incident and detailed where the fire was located, saying that there was “extensive heat damage in the upper portion of the rear fuselage,” and the batteries are located far from that area. Because of that, the AAIB says that “there is no evidence of a direct causal relationship.”
While it’s a good sign that it’s not another battery problem (considering that the FAA approved the new design for the battery), the fire is still unexplained, and the AAIB said it would take several days just to complete the initial investigation.
No matter what the cause of the fire was, this is not great news for the 787 or Boeing as a whole. The initial problems of the new aircraft already cost Boeing millions of dollars, and another grounding of the entire 787 fleet would just add insult to injury. The 787 was initially grounded by the FAA back in January after problems with the battery caused fires on several of the planes.
Luckily, there were no passengers on the plane at the time of the fire, and those who were on the plane were able to safely get off and weren’t injured. Again, the cause of the fire is still unknown, but it appears to have been an isolated incident, as the rest of the 787 fleet are continuing to fly.
VIA: Reuters
SOURCE: AAIB
IMAGE CREDIT: Boeing
Boeing 787 Dreamliner Heathrow fire unrelated to battery is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 13
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner continued the model’s string of bad luck yesterday when it burst into flames on the tarmac at London Heathrow Airport yesterday
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Jul 12
In another streak of bad luck for Boeing, the first of the 50 or so 787 Dreamliners was cleared to fly again by the FAA. The Ethiopian Airlines 787 successfully completed a test flight the first time around, but it seems trouble struck again, as a fire broke out on the plane at London’s Heathrow airport. Luckily, no passengers were on board.
Boeing is obviously aware of the issue and has provided an official statement on their Twitter account, saying that they’re “aware of the 787 event…and have Boeing personnel there.” The company is currently “working to fully understand and address this.” The cause of the fire is currently unknown at this point, but it’s said that the situation is similar to that of what happened at Boston’s Logan airport when the planes first started catching on fire.
This is obviously terrible news for Boeing, and it seems like a incredibly bad luck on their part. Again, the cause of the fire is currently unknown, but we have no reason to not believe that the fire could’ve been cause by another failed battery. The 787 was initially grounded by the FAA back in January after problems with the battery caused fires on several of the planes.
From the photos taken by onlookers, there doesn’t appear to be any noticeable damage to the outside of the plane, although you can clearly see fire-retardant foam covering the ground around the plane. It’s possible that the fire was concealed inside of the aircraft where the battery compartment is located.
Arrivals and departures were temporarily suspended at Heathrow while emergency crews attended to the situation, but Heathrow officials recently lifted the suspension after the situation was brought to control. At the time, the 787 was parked on a remote parking stand, so it was out of the way for the most part.
VIA: BBC
IMAGE CREDIT: Boeing
Boeing 787 Dreamliner catches fire after being cleared to fly again is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 12
Looks like yet another Dreamliner is on fire—this time, it’s on the tarmac at London Heathrow Airport. (Luckily, it appears the jet is empty.) You’ll remember that the Boeing 787 was initially grounded back in January after one of the aircraft caught fire on the ground at Boston Logan Airport. This new fire comes just months after a revised design of the Dreamliner with a new battery system was cleared for take off
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Jun 27
Just after resolving the huge fiasco with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the plane seems to be experiencing another issue. Japanese airline Nippon Airlines has reported that one of its 787s had issues with the plane’s power supply, noting that a warning message popped up in the cockpit alerting pilots that the power supply was
Jun 18
Jun 14
The Boeing 777 is a huge, hulking beast. And when you’re trying to churn out 100 of them every year, there’s only one way to pull it off: turn to the robots. These giant, spray-painting robot arms can coat one of the bird’s mammoth wings in mere minutes.
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Jun 12
Jun 03
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