Boeing suspends deliveries of 787 Dreamliners until batteries fixed

Zeebiz Bureau

Washington: Boeing on Friday said it was halting deliveries until the US Federal Aviation Administration approved and implemented a plan to ensure the safety of potentially flammable lithium-ion batteries that prompted a widespread grounding of the new airplane this week.

Boeing said it would continue building the carbon-composite 787. The plane is assembled in Everett, Wash., and North Charleston, S.C. out of pieces built all over the world.

The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the 787s currently in use until Boeing can prove the batteries are safe.

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing joined Japanese authorities looking into what caused warning lights to go off this week on an All Nippon Airways Co domestic flight, prompting the aircraft to make an emergency landing at Takamatsu airport in western Japan.

The incident prompted regulators in the United States and around the world to ground the 50 Dreamliners in service. The jet has been flying safely for 15 months, carrying more than 1 million passengers, but it has run into problems in recent weeks, including problems with fuel leaks.

The biggest safety concerns centered on its lithium-ion batteries, which are lighter than conventional batteries, pack more energy and are faster to recharge, but are also potentially flammable.

When the FAA announced the grounding of all six U.S.-operated 787s on Wednesday, the agency said airlines would have to show the batteries were safe and in compliance with its rules. It said both battery failures released flammable chemicals, heat damage and smoke - all of which could damage critical systems on the plane and spark a fire in the electrical compartment.

With Agency Inputs