Japan Grounds Fleet of Boeing 787s After Emergency Landing 180
hcs_$reboot writes "The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has already occupied some of Slashdot news space recently: FAA to investigate the 787 (Jan 11) or 787 catches fire in Boston (Jan 08). Today (Jan 16 JST) another incident happened that led to Japan grounding its entire 787 fleet until an internal investigation gives more information about the problem. A 787 from ANA had a battery problem and smoke was detected in the electronics. The plane had to make an emergency landing and passengers were evacuated. "
Re:This can't be true (Score:5, Informative)
Second Li-Poly battery total meltdown in as many weeks.
Boeing had to get the FAA to waive its rules regarding Lithium batteries [avherald.com] on planes in order to get this plane certified in the first place, and build containment boxes for the batteries into the design.
For the most part the risk of Lithium batteries lies in the requirement for rigid control of recharging, being careful not to over charge and also of draining the battery completely, the annoying habit of catching fire when the rules are not followed, or when the battery is short-circuited make large Li batteries (8-gram equivalent lithium content or more) banned in luggage, and shipments.
I suspect that the FAA will rescind this waiver, and force the replacement of the battery packs with something less prone to burn..
I survived. (Score:5, Informative)
I flew the 787 from Haneda to Frankfurt two weeks ago, and am happy to report the flight was excellent and as far as I can tell I wasn't killed in a fire.
smoke (Score:0, Informative)
I've always found it best to keep the smoke in the electronics. It's when it gets out that you have problems.
Re:The downsides of outsourcing (Score:3, Informative)
This has nothing to do with outsourcing - under no circumstances would Boeing have made these batteries, and all f them were installed on the Washington State FAL. Nothing to do with outsourcing, nothing to do with unionism.
Re:This can't be true (Score:5, Informative)
Somehow I suspect most airlines consider not catching on fire more important than a slight improvement in fuel efficiency. Someone's going to lose a shedload of money if these planes are out of service for long.
Re:This can't be true (Score:5, Informative)
This is why pilots don't fuck around with fire warnings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Flight_797 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_120 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudia_Flight_163 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Airways_Flight_295 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_991 [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPS_Airlines_Flight_6 [wikipedia.org]
Re:The downsides of outsourcing (Score:4, Informative)
This has nothing to do with outsourcing - under no circumstances would Boeing have made these batteries, and all f them were installed on the Washington State FAL. Nothing to do with outsourcing, nothing to do with unionism.
Outsourcing in itself is not an issue, as long as you clearly define what you expect, follow up your suppliers, check their processes, their products, etc. All of this takes time, hence money. It can work, but also turn into a nightmare if/when :
Re:This can't be true (Score:4, Informative)
To make it worth using Li-Poly over something else they must really need a hell of a lot of energy storage, otherwise the space and weight saving wouldn't be enough to risk it.
You're the first person on this entire thread to hit the nail on the head. The Dreamliner uses a sophisticated network of computers and sensors to fly. If all the engines fail, power must be supplied from the APU, basically a UPS for airplanes. Because of the amount of electronics and the fact that due to a lack of power the hydraulics and other critical systems must also remain powered... there is a massive power need. The APU is designed to power the aircraft's systems in the event of an all engine failure from cruising altitude all the way to landing; Although the more common scenario is that an electrical fault causes fuses, etc., to blow, and the APU is switched on (an isolated power source) so the plane can land safely.