A fire on board a Boeing Co. (BA) 787 Dreamliner parked at London?s Heathrow airport doesn?t appear to be related to the battery system malfunction that grounded the aircraft fleet earlier this year, a U.K. regulator said.
There is ?no evidence of a direct causal relationship? at this stage, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch said in a statement yesterday on its website. The U.K. agency said the probe will likely take several days. It?s leading the investigation with assistance from U.S. government agencies, Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise, the plane?s operator.
The fire renewed safety concerns about Boeing?s newest and most technologically-advanced plane, sending the Chicago-based company?s stock to its biggest drop in two years on July 12. Boeing is trying to restore confidence in the 787, which was grounded worldwide in January after the melting of lithium-ion batteries on two of the planes.
?It?s a dodged bullet, but there are plenty of other ways to get injured,? said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant. The fire potentially opens other systems on the plane to review, he said.
No one was on board the Ethiopian Airlines 787 at the time of the fire. The airline said it?s still flying its three other 787s while awaiting the results of the probe. Boeing, in an e-mailed statement, said it has a team on the ground at Heathrow.
Heat Damage
In addition to Boeing and Ethiopian Airlines, the AAIB said it has invited the participation of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Ethiopian civil aviation authorities. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority and the European Aviation Safety Agency also were invited.
The Dreamliner sustained ?extensive heat damage in the upper portion of the rear fuselage, a complex part of the aircraft,? the AAIB said. The plane is being housed in a hangar at Heathrow.
Robert Mann, an aviation consultant in Port Washington, New York, said fixing fire damage to the Ethiopian Airlines 787?s composite fuselage and underlying systems will be complicated, if the jet is even repairable. ?Every current and prospective operator will be looking at the outcome,? he said in an e-mail.
Operating as Scheduled
Chicago-based United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL), the only U.S. carrier to fly the Dreamliner, and Japanese airline ANA Holdings (9202) Inc. said they are operating their 787 aircraft as scheduled. Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia?s largest carrier, said its Jetstar budget airline had been briefed by Boeing on the initial investigation into the fire.
TUI Travel Plc (TT/)?s charter arm Thomson Airways Ltd. said one of its 787s turned back to Manchester, England, on July 12 because of an unspecified fault after it left for Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida. That same flight took off on schedule yesterday, said John Greenway, an airport official in Manchester.
While a ?small number? of components was replaced, Thomson isn?t disclosing details, Marc Heley, a spokesman for the company, said in an e-mailed statement. The company?s two other 787s were scheduled to fly from London?s Gatwick Airport, according to the statement.
Boeing slid 4.7 percent to $101.87 on July 12 in New York, the biggest daily decline since Aug. 18, 2011. Earlier in the day, before news of the fire, the stock reached an intraday record high of $108.15. The shares have risen 35 percent this year, as the Standard & Poor?s 500 gained 18 percent.
$207 Million
Through June, Boeing had delivered 66 Dreamliners to 11 airlines and a leasing company, including six to United Continental. The 787 has a list price of $206.8 million.
The FAA grounded the fleet on Jan. 16 after the lithium-ion batteries overheated on two aircraft, with one catching fire in Boston with no passengers aboard. In that incident, a Japan Airlines Co. 787 experienced what U.S. safety investigators called an uncontrolled chain reaction that charred the battery. The second malfunction occurred on an ANA Holdings plane that took off from Japan and was forced to make an emergency landing.
U.S. regulators cleared the Dreamliner to fly again in April after Boeing redesigned the battery to include more protection around individual cells to contain any overheating, a steel case to prevent fire and a tube to vent any vapors outside the fuselage. Ethiopian Airlines on April 27 made the first Dreamliner flight after the grounding was lifted, traveling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. The carrier has four 787s.
Having the U.K. take the lead on the current investigation has the potential to help further restore confidence in the fleet, according to Aboulafia, the Teal Group analyst.
?Getting a foreign professional organization to look at the incident and clear the design would be a real plus,? he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Johnsson in Chicago at jjohnsson@bloomberg.net; Robert Wall in London at rwall6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jennifer Sondag at jsondag@bloomberg.net
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