It’s time to return to the prickly issue of the Boeing 787 and the grounding of the new aircraft.
With the US US National Transport Safety Board still not able to point to a root cause of the battery pack failures in the Japan Airlines 787 (which lead to an small on-board fire in Boston)and the All Nippon Airlines 787 (that failed in-flight over Japan, leading to the type grounding), resumption of flying the 787 seems more distant than ever.
In the meantime, All Nippon Airlines will continue to ground 787 flights until 31st January at the earliest, swapping 787 flights for 767’s and 777’s where appropriate.
Japan Airlines will be suspending all 787 operations until at least the 3rd February, with some international routes facing cancellation of certain flights on Tokyo Narita – Boston and Tokyo Narita – San Diego routes.
Investigations are still ongoing with the 787 and the Lithium-Ion Battery packs that seem to be at the ignition/leak points with both the Japan Transport Safety Board and the NTSB stating there is no evidence yet that the batteries in the JAL and the ANA incidents were over-charged when they failed.
Currently 50 Boeing 787’s are grounded, with Boeing making no new deliveries of 787’s until the issue is resolved at the regulatory level.
Alas for Boeing and the Airlines, it’s going to take time – and when it comes to safety, all the time in the world is needed.
Interesting really, I just got back from Everrett, WA at the Boeing plant tour. They’re still cranking out the 787’s. When I asked about the problem, and what they intend to do with all the planes they’re assembling and still making, the tour guide says “We’ll continue to crank them out, and no worries, we have plenty of room to store them until delivery…”
Looks like they still have no clue what’s going on, but I guess they’re confident (or at least feign confidence) that something will be fixed soon.