Battery problems ground 787s

FAA joins 2 Japanese airlines in ordering safety checks

An All Nippon Airways flight sits at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan after it made an emergency landing and passengers evacuated from the plane on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. All Nippon Airways said a cockpit message showed battery problems and a burning smell was detected in the cockpit and the cabin, forcing the 787 on a domestic flight to land at Takamatsu airport in western Japan. (AP Photo/Asahi Shimbun, Noboru Tomura) JAPAN OUT, NO SALES, ONLINE OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT: ASAHI SHIMBUN
An All Nippon Airways flight sits at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan after it made an emergency landing and passengers evacuated from the plane on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. All Nippon Airways said a cockpit message showed battery problems and a burning smell was detected in the cockpit and the cabin, forcing the 787 on a domestic flight to land at Takamatsu airport in western Japan. (AP Photo/Asahi Shimbun, Noboru Tomura) JAPAN OUT, NO SALES, ONLINE OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT: ASAHI SHIMBUN

— An emergency landing of Boeing’s newest airplane in Japan on Wednesday prompted the Federal Aviation Administration and Japan’s two biggest airlines to ground 787 Dreamliners for safety checks.

The emergency landing was the second occurrence in two weeks involving the 787’s lithium-ion batteries.

All Nippon Airways said pilots detected a burning smell and received a cockpit message indicating battery problems. The plane made an emergencylanding at Takamatsu airport in western Japan, and passengers rode emergency slides to exit.

All Nippon Airways said an inspection found leaking electrolyte from the battery and burn marks around it. The lithium-ion battery is below and slightly behind the cockpit, and experts have said its electrolyte fluid is flammable.

Japan’s transport ministry categorized it as a “serious incident” that could have led to an accident.

The FAA ordered airlines operating the plane in the United States to prove thatlithium-ion batteries in the plane, which went into service in late 2011, “are safe and in compliance,” according to a statement.

While United Continental Holdings Inc. is the only U.S. carrier operating the 787s, most other countries follow the FAA’s lead in aviation safety issues.

“The FAA will work with the manufacturer and carriers to develop a corrective action plan to allow the U.S. 787 fleet to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible,” the agency said in the statement.

The FAA last week begana review of the model’s critical systems, looking at the design and manufacturing, after a series of problems with the plane’s electrical system.

Japan’s transport ministry said it received notices from All Nippon Airways, which operates 17 of the jets, and Japan Airlines, which has seven, that all their 787s would be grounded voluntarily.

It was unclear how long the Dreamliners would remain out of service.

On Wednesday, All Nippon Airways executives apologized, bowing deeply at a hast-ily called news conference in Tokyo.

“We are very sorry to have caused passengers and their family members so much concern,” said All Nippon Airways Senior Executive Vice President Osamu Shinobe.

The 787 relies more than any other modern airliner on electrical signals to help power nearly everything the plane does. It’s also the first Boeing plane to use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which charge faster and weigh less than other airplane batteries. Most of the 787 is made from lightweight composites instead of aluminum.

Boeing said it is aware of the latest problem and is working with All Nippon Airways and regulators.

United Airlines checked all six of its 787s overnight and was flying them as scheduled Wednesday, spokesman Christen David said. That was before the FAA grounded the planes.

Boeing was already under scrutiny after last week’s fire, which was also tied to a lithium-ion battery in a different part of the plane.

On Jan. 7, a battery near the rear of a Japan Airlines 787 burned shortly after the plane landed in Boston at Logan International Airport and passengers had deplaned.

That fire prompted investigations by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA. The FAA later said it would review the designand manufacture of the plane, focusing on its electrical systems.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that it is sending an investigator to Japan to join the newest inquiry.

Other 787s have recently had problems with certain electrical panels on the 787 and fuel leaks.

All Nippon Airways canceled a domestic flight to Tokyo on Jan. 9 after a computer wrongly indicated that there was a problem with the Boeing 787’s brakes. Two days later, the carrier reported a plane with a minor fuel leak and a cracked windscreen in a cockpit.

The earliest manufactured jets of any new aircraft usually have problems, and airlines run higher risks in flying them first, said Brendan Sobie, Singaporebased chief analyst at CAPACenter for Aviation. About half the 787 fleet is in Japan.

GS Yuasa Corp., the Japanese company that supplies all the lithium-ion batteries for the 787, had no comment. Thales, which makes the battery charging system, had no immediate comment.

Boeing has said various technical problems are to be expected in the early days of any aircraft model.

Boeing shares fell $2.60, or 3.4 percent, to close at $74.34.

Information for this article was contributed by Joshua Freed, Elaine Kurtenbach, Yuri Kageyama, Kelvin Chan, Scott Mayerowitz and Joan Lowy of The Associated Press and Alan Levin and Susanna Ray of Bloomberg News.

Business, Pages 25 on 01/17/2013

Upcoming Events