BOEING 787–DREAMLINER OR NIGHTMARE AIR MACHINE?

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been plagued with recent turbulence. The airplane that was supposed to be the best thing since retractable landing gear appears to be a big black eye for the Boeing engineers. While it is true that most new high-tech devices will have preliminary bugs, it seems that the Dreamliner is burdened with a plethora of them. The ongoing growing pains that frequently erupt are usually related to the lithium ion batteries. They are a relatively recently developed type of battery that appears to have not been given the appropriate quality control evaluation.
While United Airlines has had a few recent Boeing 787 Dreamliner incidents, Japan Airlines (JAL) has had numerous incidents, including a recent fire in the cargo compartment, likely caused by the lithium ion batteries. Luckily the airplane was on the ramp at Boston’s Logan Airport. Another aircraft operated by JAL had a windshield shatter. Most of the recent rash of problems has been related to electrical smoke and fire caused by the lithium-ion batteries.
The most recent incident involved the All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight that departed Western Japan and had to make an emergency landing in Takamatsu airport where the passengers disembarked, utilizing the emergency escape slide system. There were, as always, a few injuries during this evacuation procedure. ANA and JAL operate one half (24) of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft that are currently operational. Both airlines have elected to ground all of their 787 Dreamliners until the Boeing tech reps and engineers can provide a solution. An interesting and ironic side note is that the Boeing engineers union (SPEEA) is threatening to go on strike.
United Airlines is the only US carrier operating the 787 aircraft and both Ray LaHood, the director of the NTSB, and Michael Huerta, the FAA administrator stated they would not hesitate to ride on the aircraft. {{ “Should travelers be worried? No, says Charles “Les” Westbrooks, Associate Professor of Aeronautical Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. “In aviation we have learned that accidents are caused by a series of events rather than any one catastrophic event. Because of this we have ‘safety stand downs’ when events are happening in succession so as to break the chain of events which could lead to an accident.”}} (Extracted from Forbes Lifestyle by Andrew Bender/ 1:37 pm EDT, Jan 16, 2012
This blog is prepared by aviation author, Allen Morris/a.k.a. Ace Abbott, (www.therogueaviator.com) and (www.deadtiredpilots.com).