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

  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    @flipper (bet you don't work there)
    January 16, 2013 1:29 am
    The Management runs the assembly not the "unions".
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • flipper wrote...
    Ron
    January 16, 2013 6:52 am
    Management runs the assembly by a bunch of union workers who produce crap. Go out on strike again; you'll make better planes.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    @flipper
    January 16, 2013 12:35 pm
    you are flippant.You are probably some bag that sits at home on your keester and does not do anything but facebook.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ted Bundi wrote...
    all in all with the comments... thanks Boeing workers...
    January 16, 2013 3:10 am
    but if they tell me it's a new 787 jet, I will switch to another flight. I don't want to be part of the one going down. Why did they move and outsource so much?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Outsourcing
    January 16, 2013 12:30 pm
    What REALLY happens is with the outsourcing model a vendor can outsource "their" work to another "cheaper" vendor this is happening a lot here on the 787.This is so "Management" the guys "running the show" at the top can "get rich" really all the processes and the construction should have been held "close to the vest" here in Seattle (Everett) until it is correct and then outsource it.But sorry to say "greed" got in the way.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Wake up/Grow up..then talk.
    January 16, 2013 7:29 am
    This isnt about who built the plane and where. Look at the paper trail on the 87 since it's first flight. There is clearly a design issue centered around the lithium's. Something that worked on the bench and on the ground at pre flight goes into overheat when the plane enters daily service. A critical application error or perhaps quality issues with the battery pack itself. Whatever the reason(s), not good. If the FAA grounds this plane, Boeing is looking at the mother of all headaches coming back..
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HLC wrote...
    A 1400 degree fire is pretty serious.
    January 16, 2013 8:00 am
    When you consider the fuselage will melt at less than 600 degrees. Maybe better rethink those batteries. Have they ever been used in aircraft before?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • shark75 wrote...
    Mike in Pioneer Square & Deltta act like smoke in the cabin ain't no big deal
    January 16, 2013 8:22 am
    But when "the smoke clears", they are the ones being interviewed on the Piers Morgan Show talking about their lawsuit against Boeing for "mental distress" or some B.S like that...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • deltta wrote...
    Shark, Really?
    January 16, 2013 10:08 am
    Sorry you didn't get it. I've actually been on AC that have declared in flight emergencies and one was a cockpit fire.I didn't sue then and wouldn't sue now.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Drool wrote...
    None of You Ignorati....
    January 16, 2013 8:24 am
    ....know whether the recent failures on the 787s were within union or non-union built systems or subsystems within the 787. Much of that plane is built by non union folks in various parts of the country. The battery in question last week was made in Japan.

    The 787 sections arrive in Everett from sites like SC or Japan pre-stuffed with much of the wiring systems and are mated together.

    If you geniuses think you know better, spew away but you don't really know what you are talking about.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Drool..
    January 16, 2013 8:58 am
    Who is the manufacturer of the battery? (Not the system it goes into..the battery itself)
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Drool wrote...
    Yuasa
    January 16, 2013 9:02 am
    http://www.gsyuasa-lp.com/content/thales-selects-gs-yuasa-lithium-ion-battery-system-boeing%E2%80%99s-787-dreamliner
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Snout wrote...
    Boeing, the union etc.
    January 16, 2013 9:38 am
    I've made comments about the union and how they have a statue of a guy on strike in front of their hq instead of a guy working. But I'd rather fly on their planes instead of some eurotrash or Chinese immitation any day.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • adiru wrote...
    Drool is right
    January 16, 2013 12:46 pm
    The wiring is all part of the sub-assemblies but do not include the battery, which is an LRU and installed later. Which means that if it's a wiring problem, it's a design issue. If it's an LRU problem, it has nothing to do with union Everett or non-union SC. There is too much union vs non-union BS going on every time a Boeing subject comes up without any facts known.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • cdbtx wrote...
    And the really bad news.
    January 16, 2013 2:34 pm
    Here’s the FAA statement:

    “As a result of an in-flight, Boeing 787 battery incident earlier today in Japan, the FAA will issue an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) to address a potential battery fire risk in the 787 and require operators to temporarily cease operations. Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }