WASHINGTON
— Lithium batteries that can leak corrosive fluid and start fires have
emerged as the chief safety concern involving Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, a
problem that apparently is far more serious than government or company
officials acknowledged less than a week ago.
The Federal Aviation Administration late Wednesday grounded
Boeing’s newest and most technologically advanced jetliner until the risk of
battery fires is resolved. The order applies only to the six Dreamliners
operated by United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier with 787s. Other airlines
and civil aviation authorities in other countries quickly followed
suit.
Japan’s two largest air carriers voluntarily grounded their 787s
on Wednesday ahead of the FAA’s order following an emergency landing by one
of the planes in Japan. On Thursday, the European Aviation Safety Agency
ordered all European carriers to ground the jetliner. The Indian government
ordered Air India to ground its fleet of six Boeing 787s, and Ethiopian
Airlines grounded its four 787sÂ
“for precautionary inspection.”
Only hours before the FAA issued its order, Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood reiterated to reporters that he considers the plane safe
and wouldn’t hesitate to fly one. LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta
unequivocally declared the plane safe at a news conference last week even
while they ordered a safety review of the aircraft.
However, as details emerged of two battery failures only 10 days
apart, it became apparent that the FAA wouldn’t be able to wait for
completion of its safety review before taking action. An inspection of the
All Nippon Airways 787 that made an emergency landing in western Japan found
that electrolytes, a flammable battery fluid, had leaked from the plane’s
main lithium-ion battery. Investigators found burn marks around the damage.
Japan’s Kyodo News agency quoted transport ministry investigator Hideyo
Kosugi as saying the liquid leaked through the electrical room floor to the
outside of the aircraft.
In the first battery incident on Jan. 7, it took firefighters 40
minutes to put out a blaze centered in an auxiliary power unit of a Japan
Airlines 787. The plane was empty of passengers shortly after landing at
Boston’s Logan International Airport.
The two incidents resulted in the release of flammable electrolytes,
heat damage and smoke, the FAA confirmed. The release of battery fluid is
especially concerning, safety experts said. The fluid is extremely corrosive,
which means it can quickly damage electrical wiring and components. The 787
relies far more than any other airliner in operation on electronics to
function rather than hydraulic or mechanical systems.
The electrolyte fluid also conducts electricity, so as it spreads
it can short circuits, interfere with electrical signals and make control of
the plane impossible for pilots and ignite fires. And its corrosiveness
raises concern about whether a leak might weaken a key support structure of
the plane, even though the 787 is the first airliner to be made primarily
from lightweight composite materials that are less susceptible to corrosion
than aluminum, safety experts said.
“Anytime you have leakage of battery fluid it’s a very
serious situation, ” said Kevin Hiatt, president and CEO of the Flight
Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, which promotes global airline
safety.
The fluid leak identified in the Japanese airline plane was a “very significant finding, ” said
John Goglia, an expert on aircraft maintenance and a former National
Transportation Safety Board member.
“There are all kinds of possibilities, ” Goglia
said. “They need to go in and
take a look at it. I guarantee you everybody’s doing
that.”
The 787 is the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium-ion
batteries to help power its energy-hungry electrical systems. The batteries
charge faster and can be better molded to space-saving shapes compared with
other airplane batteries.
“Unfortunately, what Boeing did to save weight is use the
same batteries that are in the electric cars, and they are running into the
same problems with the 787 as the problems that have shown up in electric
cars, ” said Paul Czysz, professor emeritus of aeronautical engineering
at St. Louis University.
The lithium-ion batteries in several Chevrolet Volts used for
crash-testing caught fire in 2011. General Motors engineers eventually
figured out that the fires were the result of a battery coolant leak that
caused electrical shorts after side-impact crash tests. GM retrofitted the
car with more steel to protect the battery. No fires were ever reported on
real-world roads.
Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chairman, president and CEO, said the company
is working with the FAA to resolve the situation as quickly as
possible.
“We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its
overall integrity, ” he said in a statement. “We will be taking every necessary
step in the coming days to assure our customers and the traveling public of
the 787’s safety and to return the airplanes to
service.”
Mike Sinnett, chief engineer on the 787, said last week that the
plane’s batteries have operated through a combined 1.3 million hours and
never had an internal fault. He said they were built with multiple
protections to ensure that failuresÂ
“don’t put the airplane at risk.”
The lithium-ion design was chosen because it’s the only type of
battery that can take a large charge in a short amount of time. Rechargeable
lithium batteries are most widely used to power consumer electronics such as
laptops and cell phones. But they are also known to short-circuit and start
fires that burn extremely hot and are difficult to put
out.
Shipments of lithium batteries are suspected of causing or
contributing to the severity of fires that caused two cargo jets to crash
since 2010.
Sinnett said Boeing has long been aware of possible problems with
lithium batteries. However, he said Boeing had designed the plane with
special safety precautions to prevent a possible battery fire and to contain
a fire to a small area should one occur.
Neither GS Yuasa Corp., the Japanese company that supplies the
batteries for the 787, nor Thales, which makes the battery charging system,
would comment on the recent troubles.
Boeing and its customers will need to move quickly to resolve the
problem. The aircraft maker has booked orders for more than 800 of the planes
from airlines around the world attracted by its increased fuel
efficiency.
The FAA order had airlines, flight crews and passengers scrambling
to figure out what to do next. Stanislaw Radzio, the captain of a LOT Polish
Airlines 787 that landed at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago late
Wednesday, told The Associated Press he wasn’t sure when the plane would be
heading back to Poland.
“We’re grounded like everyone else, ” he said. “We are very unhappy with the
situation.”
He said he was told of the FAA decision during the flight from
Warsaw. A captain and flight instructor at the Polish airline since 1999,
Radzio said the 787 is the nicest plane he’s ever flown.
A passenger on the flight, Taras Dukyn, a student at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, said he was surprised when told of the
grounding by reporters, but would be willing to fly the aircraft again if the
problems were fixed.
“It’s a really nice plane. Computers in every
chair. It was comfortable, although I was a little hot, ” he
said.