Investigations of the B787 Dreamliner aircraft have not yielded any substantial explanations into the cause of the fire onboard Japan Airlines (JAL) earlier this month (see story here) and therefore the aircraft will continue to be grounded until late February at least.
A release from the National Transportation Safety Board stated “a cursory comparative exam has been conducted on the undamaged main battery. No obvious anomalies were found” and therefore “more detailed examination will be conducted.” Investigations that are carried out in Arizona, at the Securaplan Technologies plant where the battery charger was manufactured, also came up with “no significant findings” while checks in Japan of the battery monitoring unit also led to “no significant discoveries” and the cause of the incident is still unknown.
While further examinations are underway, the planes will remain grounded until further notice. JAL announced it will “temporarily suspend the operations of the 787-8 on international routes from January 16 to February 17.” According to Airline Route, an industry website, LAN has also cancelled its planned B787 operations until February 28. Instead, the carrier will use a B767 on the affected routes.
The investigations were prompted by a series of incidents including the fire on the JAL Dreamliner and an emergency landing for the All Nippon Airways (ANA) aircraft (see story here).
Business Traveller will keep an eye on the situation and will continue to update with further schedule changes. For more information, visit www.boeing.com.
Alisha Haridasani
