Boeing 787 probe far from complete
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E-mail Agencies/China Daily, January 25, 2013
US safety regulators are nowhere near finishing an investigation into a battery fire on the Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner, a top official said on Thursday, raising the prospect of a prolonged grounding for the plane.
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An All Nippon Airways (ANA) Boeing 787 Dreamliner is seen after making an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport in western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo, January 16, 2013. The plane made the landing in Takamatsu after smoke appeared in the plane's cockpit, but all 137 passengers and crew members were evacuated safely, Osaka Airport said.[Photo: Agencies] |
Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights in the eight days since the plane was grounded, and Boeing has stopped deliveries of newly built jets.
The full financial impact on the planemaker is still not clear. Still, Boeing shares are actually up 1.3 percent since regulators said the plane - full of high-tech innovations that are supposed to be a model for future aviation - could not fly.
Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, made clear that investigators have found a series of "symptoms" in the battery damaged in a Jan 7 fire in Boston, but not the underlying cause of the problem.
"We are early in our investigation, we have a lot of activities to undertake," Hersman told a news conference.
"This is an unprecedented event. We are very concerned. We do not expect to see fire events on board aircraft. This is a very serious air safety concern."
She rebuffed multiple questions on how long the investigation would take, making clear it could be weeks or more. She also would not say when the 787 would fly again, which is in the hands of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Former NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said the briefing made it clear that the investigators had come up short in their hunt for the cause of the battery fire.
"It's going to take them longer," he said in an interview. "Weeks, not days."
Boeing and its regulators have said they do not know when the 787 will fly again. It has been grounded worldwide since a plane by All Nippon Airways made an emergency landing in Japan on Jan 16 after a battery incident, which Hersman said may or may not have been a fire.
That emergency landing came after a fire occurred on a Japan Airlines Co Ltd 787 on the tarmac in Boston.
Boeing was not immediately available to comment on the latest NTSB statement. France's Thales, which makes the 787 battery system, declined to comment.
Other new planes had problems when they were introduced, but not fires, which makes this situation stand out, Rosenker said.
"Fire is something you don't fool with," he said. "You've got to understand that, particularly given the short period of time the aircraft has been flying."
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