Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced further schedule adjustments to flights originally operated by the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft that were grounded last week (see story here).
On February 2 and 3, a total of three roundtrip flights will be cancelled – two on the Narita-Boston and one on Narita-San Francisco routes – which will affect approximately 620 passengers.
According to a statement from the carrier, JAL will “maintain most of its other flights as scheduled using alternative aircraft and adjustments to flight operations on and after February 4, 2013, will be announced as soon as decisions are made.”
As reported earlier (see story here), the Tokyo Haneda-Beijing flight will be operated with a B767 instead of the Dreamliner, as will flights to Singapore until February 1, after which a B777-200ER will be used instead. The B777-200ER will also replace the Dreamliner on flights to Moscow and San Diego.
A series of problematic incidents, including a fire onboard a JAL Dreamliner (see story here) and an emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways (ANA) Dreamliner (see story here), prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue an advisory last week that required carriers around the world to “temporarily cease operations” of the 787 aircraft (see story here).
Investigations into the incidents carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the FAA and Boeing have revealed that the lithium-ion battery on the JAL Dreamliner experienced a short circuit and a “thermal runaway,” which is a chemical reaction that can lead to overheating.
“In two weeks time, we’ve seen two cases of battery failure on the 787 and the grounding of the entire fleet by the FAA. The significance of these events cannot be understated,” said Deborah Hersman, chairman of the NTSB.
“Today I can tell you what we know so far: we know that the lithium-ion battery experienced a thermal runaway, we know that there were short circuits and we know that there was a fire.” However, these findings do not explain why those incidents happened in the first place and therefore investigations will continue.
“The work that we continue to do will tell us why these things happened and it is answering the why question that will ensure the appropriate corrective actions are taken,” she said.
For more information, visit www.jal.com or www.boeing.com
Alisha Haridasani
