Boeing conducts test flight to probe battery fires
WASHINGTON (AFP/Reuters) – Boeing on Saturday carried out an “uneventful” test flight of its 787 Dreamliner as part of investigations into recent battery fires that led international regulators to ground the aircraft.
The flight took off from Seattle, Washington with a crew of 13 pilots and testing personnel at 12.32 pm local time (2032 GMT) and landed at 2.51pm (2251 GMT), Boeing said.
“During the flight, the crew monitored the performance of the main and APU batteries,” Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said in a statement. He added that special equipment “allowed the crew to observe and record detailed battery performance in normal flight conditions”.
A Boeing 787 lands in Everett, Washington travelling with crew only from Fort Worth, Texas February 7. REUTERS
The burnt auxiliary power unit battery, removed from an All Nippon Airways’ (ANA) Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner plane which made an emergency landing on January 16, 2013 in Takamatsu, is inspected by the manufacturer at the headquarters of GS Yuasa Corp in Kyoto, western Japan, in this handout photo taken on January 26 and released by the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) February 5. REUTERS
He added: “Data gathered during the flight is considered part of the investigations into the 787 battery events that occurred in January. For that reason, we cannot share any additional details.”
Birtel said more test flights were planned for next week.
“As a matter of long-standing practice, we do not provide flight schedules in advance of flight plans being filed,” he added.
The test flight had been approved earlier in the week by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
On Friday, Boeing said it had informed buyers of its troubled 787 Dreamliner that deliveries would be delayed as US air safety experts investigate the two burned battery incidents on the aircraft.
On January 16, the 50 Dreamliners in service around the world were grounded after a battery fire on a parked Japan Airlines (JAL) plane and battery smoke on an All Nippon Airways flight forced an emergency landing.
Two days later, Boeing suspended deliveries of the aircraft until further notice, but continued production.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the FAA, and Japanese and French authorities are investigating the cause of the battery incidents.
The NTSB on Thursday suggested it could be weeks before it reaches a conclusion on what caused the battery fire aboard the JAL 787 at Boston’s Logan International Airport on January 7. Meanwhile, the chief executive of International Airlines Group said he was confident that Boeing would overcome problems with its 787 Dreamliner jet, but added that they could take months to resolve. “I am confident that Boeing will come up with a technical solution to the problems that they have identified,” IAG chief Willie Walsh told an audience at an economic forum at Dublin’s Trinity College university.
“I don’t know how long it’s going to take for them because they will have to do some redesigning of the battery system and I’d expect it to take a couple of months.”
Walsh said he still considered the 787 “a fantastic aircraft” and expected IAG to take delivery at the end of May of the first of the 24 planes it has ordered: “We remain committed to the orders that we’ve placed with Boeing.”
