2nd day of hiccups puts Boeing’s 787 on analysts’ radar

A Boston Fire Department chief looks into the cargo hold of a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet parked at a Terminal E gate at Logan International Airport in Boston, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. A small electrical fire filled the cabin of the JAL aircraft with smoke Monday morning about 15 minutes after it landed in Boston. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
A Boston Fire Department chief looks into the cargo hold of a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet parked at a Terminal E gate at Logan International Airport in Boston, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. A small electrical fire filled the cabin of the JAL aircraft with smoke Monday morning about 15 minutes after it landed in Boston. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

— A fuel leak on a Japan Airlines-operated Boeing Co. Dreamliner at Boston delayed a flight to Tokyo on Tuesday, a day after a fire broke out on another Dreamliner at the same airport.

An open fuel valve caused kerosene to leak from the plane, delaying takeoff until mechanics could close it, Seiji Takaramoto, a spokesman at Japan Airlines, said Wednesday. About 40 gallons of fuel spilled on the ground at Logan International Airport, said Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for airport operator Massport.

The incidents are the latest to plague the world’s first jet with a fuselage made chiefly of composite materials after it entered commercial service in late 2011, more than three years behindschedule. Boeing, which said Wednesday that it has “complete confidence” in the new model, is set to double production of the 787 this year to help fill remaining orders for about 800.

“Unfortunately the aircraft is known now for its problems, not for the performance it delivers and the enhanced safety features,” said Michel Merluzeau, an analyst with G2 Solutions in Kirkland, Wash.

Japan Airlines, with a fleet of seven 787 Dreamliners, said it was going to check why the fuel valve wasn’t closed after the plane landed in Tokyo on Wednesday, Takaramoto said. The carrier completed checks on batteries after the 787 fire in Boston and no problems were found on the other six aircraft, he said.

All Nippon Airways Co., the biggest operator of 787s,canceled a domestic Dreamliner flight Wednesday in Japan because of a problem with the computer controlling the brake system, Megumi Tezuka, a spokesman at the airline, said by telephone from Tokyo. The airline had several computer problems with the 787 after becoming the first customer in September 2011, which led to the software system being updated last year, she said.

GS Yuasa made the lithium ion battery on the 787 and is cooperating with the investigation, Tsutomu Nishijima, a spokesman for the Kyotobased company, said Tuesday. GS Yuasa isn’t aware of the reason for the fire, he said.

“The safety of flight of the aircraft isn’t in question - I can guarantee this is a much safer airplane than the 767 it’s replacing - but it shapes the perception of the community and operators and passengers as to what it’s known for right now,” said Merluzeau.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating Monday’s fire, said Tuesday that the blaze caused “severe” damage near a battery rack in an electronics bay.

“There’s a fine line between a new airplane with glitches and a new airplane with problems, and I’m worried the 787 is crossing the line to problems,” said Henry Harteveldt, an aviation analyst at Hudson Crossing inSan Francisco.

United Continental Holdings inspected all six of its 787s after Monday’s Japan Airlines fire, Mary Ryan, a spokesman said Tuesday. She declined to reveal the results and said Chicago-based United continues to work with Boeing on the 787 ’s reliability.

United canceled both the inbound and outbound Los Angeles-Tokyo flights on Monday that were supposed to have been flown with a 787 and used a different aircraft, said Ryan, who declined to give a reason for the cancellations.

“Nothing that we’ve seen in this case indicates a relationship to any previous 787 power system events, which involved power panel faults elsewhere in the aft electrical equipment bay,” Lori Gunter, a Boeing spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday.

Fuel leaks in November were traced to manufacturing errors, spurring Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to direct inspections and repairs, and Japan Airlines said Dec. 5 it had repaired its 787s.

The National Transportation Safety Board isn’t investigating the leak, which is being reviewed by the FAA. Boeing is aware of the leak and is “working with our customer,” said Julie O’Donnell, a company spokesman.

Air India’s fleet is “operating smoothly,” the carrier’s spokesman, Prasada Rao, said Wednesday in New Delhi. The airline received its sixth Dreamliner on Monday. Boeing has agreed to modify the electrical system on one of the planes by March after providing an “interim solution” to a fault detected in September, he said.

“We have complete confidence in the 787 and vow to take care of any issues our customers are experiencing,” Randy Tinseth, Boeing’s marketing chief, said in a blogpost Wednesday, adding that the model has flown more than 50,000 hours.

Information for this article was contributed by Mary Jane Credeur, Robert Tuttle and Karthikeyan Sundaram of Bloomberg News.

Business, Pages 23 on 01/10/2013

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