Dreamliner problems

Besides battery issues, Boeing has also been dealing with FAA scrutiny on another front. That has to do with the 787's extended operations...or so called ETOPS certification. The company also has satisfy the agency that the 787 is reliable enough to fly routes that take the twinjet up to 180 minutes away from an eligible runway.

US regulators on Friday approved a revamped battery system for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a crucial step in returning the high-tech jet to commercial service. Remember the Boeing 'break-through' aircraft had to be grounded back in January because the plane's lithium-ion batteries overheated on a Japanese carrier's plane at Logan in Boston and then a series of incidents cascaded for a few days after.

Boeing starts modifications on ANA and JAL 787s

With the FAA approving the battery fixes for the Boeing 787-8. They have now gone ahead with giving the fix to the Japanese carriers. Boeing's maintenance teams started modification works on All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines' (JAL) Boeing 787s on the morning of 22 April.

Ethiopian Airlines is set to become the first carrier to resume flying Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, with a commercial flight on Saturday to Kenya, two airline sources said. Boeing 787s have been grounded since regulators ordered all 50 planes out of the skies in mid-January after batteries on two of them overheated. US regulators approved a new battery design on Friday, clearing the way for installation. "Ethiopian Airlines will be the first airline company to resume 787 Dreamliner flights in the world. Saturday's the date," a senior Ethiopian Airlines source said. "We're flying to Nairobi, Kenya on the normal flight schedule."

The US Federal Aviation Administration gave formal approval on Thursday for a new lithium-ion battery system for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, ending a three-month ban and clearing airlines to fly the plane with passengers again. The FAA's "airworthiness directive" technically applies just to United Airlines, which so far is the only US carrier with the high-tech jet, but it will set the standard that regulators in Japan, Europe and elsewhere will follow. Other US carriers with 787s on order will eventually come under the new rule.

The FAA pegged the cost of repairing United's six jets at about USD$2.8 million.

The approval caps a tumultuous period for Boeing and its airline customers, beginning when two lithium-ion batteries overheated on two 787s in separate incidents less than two weeks apart in January. The two planes are owned by Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, which together own nearly half the fleet of 50 787s delivered so far. The ban on flights effectively halted deliveries of new planes to customers.

Boeing devoted thousands of hours to developing a fix, even before investigators determined what caused the batteries to overheat, emit smoke and, in one instance, catch fire. That investigation continues, led by the US National Transportation Safety Board, which held hearings this week on the issue. Last week, the FAA gave Boeing permission to begin installing the new battery system on planes. On Wednesday, the company said it expected to resume deliveries early next month and finish retrofitting the 50 customer planes by mid-May.

(Reuters)

Japan's transport minister said the government will issue a technical directive on Friday that would permit the resumption of flights of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The US Federal Aviation Administration gave formal approval on Thursday for a new lithium-ion battery system for the 787, ending a three-month ban and clearing airlines to fly the plane with passengers again.

(Reuters)

Ethiopian Airlines has become the first carrier to resume flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, landing the first commercial flight since the global fleet was grounded three months ago. The flight went from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

Boeing seems to have still done pretty well even with the 787 Dreamliner grounding for 3-months, they simply absorbed the losses/cost. Boeing will not say what the crisis has cost, it absorbed nearly all of it in the first quarter while posting a 20-percent profit gain never-the-less.

RR to replace engine on LOT Boeing 787

(Reuters)

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting an urgent new round of testing on the Boeing 787's lithium-ion batteries in hopes of finding a root cause before most airlines resume routine commercial flights next month. A solicitation issued on the 3rd of May by the NSTB uses the "urgency" of the tests to justify bypassing federal regulations that require calling for multiple bids and instead award the work to a contractor based close to the agency's headquarters in Washington DC.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is set to join JAL to relaunch their Boeing 787 services on June 1, 2013. Last month, Boeing sent maintenance teams to Japan to implement the newly approved battery fixes on the carrier's new planes.

JAL now has all seven of their Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft retrofitted with the newly certified battery containment system. They are poised to return to commercial service at the start of the coming month.

Boeing will complete fixing the batteries on all 50 of its 787 Dreamliner jets by the end of this month, Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president for sales in Asia Pacific, told Reuters on Wednesday.

An All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 experienced a minor electrical fault during a recent proving flight, but the cause was traced to an insufficiently turned nut in an electrical panel. During a proving flight on 4 May on the Tokyo Haneda-Chitose route, the flightcrew of aircraft registration JA809A observed five advisory messages about an error in an electrical distribution panel located in the aircraft's aft power bay, says an ANA spokeswoman. Commercial services on ANA Boeing 787-8 aircraft is expected to resume on June 1, 2013.

Conner: In-service retrofits of 787 battery wrap up by next week. Delivery guidance unchanged on 787 program.

http://www.boeingblogs.com/randy/archives/2013/05/getting_the_job_done.html

Rolls-Royce said it was working with Japan's All Nippon Airways after the airline was forced to scrap a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight following an engine problem. The ANA flight from Ube in west Japan to Tokyo was cancelled after the right engine of the Boeing 787 failed to start. ANA's 787s are powered by Rolls' Trent 1000 engines. "We are aware of this issue and are working closely with ANA to understand it and support them," a Rolls-Royce spokesman said.

(Reuters)

United Airlines 787 makes Emergency Landing in Seattle

Apparently a UAL 787 had to make an emergency landing in Seattle because of an Oil filter problem? The flight was coming from Denver and going to Narita, Tokyo.

Another Oil-related problem with a UAL 787 makes the news again! Sigh.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/second-united-dreamliner-diverted-oil-232633248.html

Another Boeing 787 had some kind of a problem yesterday and had to be diverted, I am not sure what kind of a problem it was but I believe it was a United 787 again!