ana7872.jpg
An All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 sits at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan after it made an emergency landing Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Japanese airlines ground Boeing 787 fleet after emergency landing

BY MyNorthwest.com  on January 15, 2013 @ 5:24 pm (Updated: 12:18 pm - 1/16/13 )

Aviation experts say Boeing will have to move fast to fix problems with their 787 Dreamliner.

Japan's two major airlines have grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s after one of the jets operated by All Nippon Airways had to make an emergency landing Wednesday in western Japan. All 137 passengers and crew members were evacuated safely.

ANA officials said they were grounding all 17 of their 787s and Japan Airlines also suspended all of its 787 flights Wednesday. The two combined fly nearly half the 50 Dreamliners delivered to date by Boeing worldwide.

Officials say the ANA Dreamliner departed Yamaguchi Airport in Takamatsu in western Japan en route to Haneda Airport near Tokyo when instruments warned of a battery error, which triggered an emergency warning to pilots.

"There was a battery alert in the cockpit and there was an odd smell detected in the cockpit and cabin, and (the pilot) decided to make an emergency landing," said ANA vice president Osamu Shinobe at a press conference where he bowed in apology.

Shinobe said the battery was the same type as one involved in a fire on another Dreamliner at Boston's airport last week.

The incident is just the latest problem to plague the new jetliner. In just the past several weeks the world's first mainly carbon-composite airliner suffered two fuel leaks, a battery fire, a wiring problem, brake computer glitch and cracked cockpit window.

"We've seen the reports. We're aware of the events and are working with our customer," Boeing spokesman Mark Birtel said.

Aviation insider Richard Aboulafia tells KIRO Radio Boeing needs to get on this, and quickly, before this blows up into a major crisis.

"They need to move very fast on this before it becomes a full-fledged public relations disaster, even more so than it already has become."

Many other aviation experts are now saying Boeing's problems with the 787 have gone beyond the growing pains of a new airplane in its first 15 months of service. Tom Ballintine is a writer for Orient Aviation Magazine. "Things go wrong on a brand new airplane," Ballintine said. "They get sorted-out, but this is more than that. There are too many things happening and in different areas of the aircraft to be simply teething problems."

Japan's NHK television network broadcast pictures of the stricken plane with its emergency escape slides deployed.

Aviation authorities in both Japan and the United States have opened investigations into the safety of the 787 after the recent mishaps. The National Transportation Safety Board is sending an investigator to Japan to study the burned-out battery.

At least one former Boeing engineer told KIRO Radio that he saw these problems coming years ago. Scott Schuldt worked for Boeing for 20 years. He left in 2005 as the Dreamliner was going into final design.

He believes the amount of outsourcing the company did with the engineering and design on this plane has played a role in its problems entering service. "I don't like to get smug about it," he said, "but I kind of saw it coming." The FAA is looking at the outsourcing of work on this plane as part of its top-to-bottom review. "Nothing that goes wrong with the plane is a surprise," Schuldt said.

Last week, Boeing said that outsourcing had nothing to do with the issues the plane is now experiencing.

ANA and JAL are expected to announce on Thursday whether it will continue to ground their fleets of Dreamliners.

KIRO Radio's Chris Sullivan and MyNorthwest.com's Josh Kerns contributed to this report.

MyNorthwest.com, Staff report
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Comments (34)


  • Add A Comment

  • CH wrote...
    O My Sweet Jesus - the dreamliner is a nighmareliner -
    January 15, 2013 5:24 pm
    fly only on the 4th of July!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    smoke appeared in the plane's cockpit -
    January 15, 2013 5:27 pm
    no I was not the pilot!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ronzilla wrote...
    Have you ever walked through one of Boeing's factories and witnessed all the drug-addled assemblers working in the plant?
    January 15, 2013 6:03 pm
    I have witnessed it.

    I remember overhearing one clear-headed worker complaining to his supervisor about his oxycontin influenced brain-dead co-workers.

    It is actually quite scary to think how much quality has gone by the wayside due to drug abuse. AND trying to get several million parts manufactured by dozens of different companies FROM AROUND THE WORLD to fit together. It's kind of skeevy when you think about it.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • kanolee907 wrote...
    Have you ever walked through one of Boeing's factories and witnessed all the drug-addled assemblers working in the plant?
    January 15, 2013 6:28 pm
    I have been retired from Boeing for about 9 years now. I have been in Management also and I can tell you any person actually working on a plane on drugs are very easy to see and the management has procedures to follow. This person may have been a support person such as tool room clerk, Stores Clerk, etc etc but an actual mechanic on the plane in this state of mind is easy to detect as assigned daily work has time limits and if a person is on drugs they will be unable to keep up. As I say this person may have been support and in such a way is not monitored closely like an mechanic is monitored.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • fartforce1 wrote...
    Ron + stupid
    January 15, 2013 7:26 pm
    nuf said
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Snout wrote...
    Probably some overpaid moron
    January 15, 2013 7:18 pm
    put tab "a" into slot "b" while building the dang thing.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • fartforce1 wrote...
    once again, Boeing will not say where this plane was assembled.
    January 15, 2013 7:23 pm
    they don't want non union mechanics getting a black eye.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • adiru wrote...
    These airplanes were almost surely made here
    January 15, 2013 8:09 pm
    Over the last year I would drive by Paine Field and see acres and acres of 787s spread out on the ramps needing completion and a lot of them were ANA. And this was way before the first one for Air India was delivered by SC in October. The first and third ones by them went to Air India, not sure about the second one.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    According to our resident rocket scientist
    January 15, 2013 7:35 pm
    The anonymous poster who "witnessed" drug abuse at the Boeing plant in Everett, it must have been assembled there. I highly doubt it though, I am under the impression that all of them, except for the test planes were assembled in that right to work state. Any rebuttal, ron?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Drool wrote...
    A Lot of the Sub Assembies
    January 16, 2013 9:50 am
    ...are put together in non union facilities....like SC. Final assembly in Everett is union. SC is not. Most planes come from Everett.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • shark75 wrote...
    Union Made: A superior product....till something breaks, then it's the same as all the other cra.p that's out there.
    January 15, 2013 8:30 pm
    If everything else falls from the sky I guess it's okay if the union stuff does it too. What a scam...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Mike in Pioneer Square wrote...
    That's All?
    January 15, 2013 9:40 pm
    A battery light came on and there was a "smell" in the cockpit. So they not only landed the plane, but did an "emergency landing"? I can understand some caution, but this sounds like a tremendous overreaction.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • deltta wrote...
    Mike
    January 15, 2013 9:52 pm
    These are the folks that are scared by big rubber lizards...........GODZILLA!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    A lithium battery fire is nothing to sneeze at!
    January 15, 2013 10:30 pm
    Temperature of 1400 to 2000 degrees.Why do you think Toyota has stayed with the Nickel Metal hydride batteries in the Prius?Answer ...Fire...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2%80%93metal_hydride_battery
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • deltta wrote...
    Ron
    January 16, 2013 12:02 am
    Of course you are right......but one can never..ever pass up a Godzilla joke.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • flipper wrote...
    Boing Boing Boing
    January 15, 2013 11:32 pm
    oops...that's Boeing...This is what happens when you let unions run the assembly. Crap product.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }