The Boeing 787 Dreamliner sits on the tarmac at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington after its maiden flight, December 15, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Robert SorboView the original article here
WARSAW | Fri Jul 26, 2013 9:07am EDT
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's flag carrier LOTLOT.UL said on Friday it would continue to pursue hefty damages from Boeing(BA.N) over the grounding of the Dreamliners, which the airline said hurt its efforts to restructure its ailing business.
"We are demanding from Boeing concrete sums that we have been able to calculate," said LOT CEO Sebastian Mikosz. "Unfortunately, it's not possible to estimate all the losses to our image related to the loss of credibility among some of our customers."
LOT was the first European airline to add Boeing's Dreamliner to its fleet before they were grounded over problems with their batteries. LOT currently has four Dreamliners.
(Reporting by Chris Borowski)
WARSAW | Fri Jul 26, 2013 9:07am EDT
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's flag carrier LOTLOT.UL said on Friday it would continue to pursue hefty damages from Boeing(BA.N) over the grounding of the Dreamliners, which the airline said hurt its efforts to restructure its ailing business.
"We are demanding from Boeing concrete sums that we have been able to calculate," said LOT CEO Sebastian Mikosz. "Unfortunately, it's not possible to estimate all the losses to our image related to the loss of credibility among some of our customers."
LOT was the first European airline to add Boeing's Dreamliner to its fleet before they were grounded over problems with their batteries. LOT currently has four Dreamliners.
(Reporting by Chris Borowski)
An Air India Airlines Boeing 787 dreamliner takes part in a flying display during the 50th Paris Air Show at the Le Bourget airport near Paris, June 14, 2013 file photo.
Credit: Reuters/Pascal RossignolNEW DELHI | Fri Jul 26, 2013 5:19am EDT
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An oven in a Boeing Co (BA.N) Dreamliner operated by Air India AIN.UL overheated during a domestic flight this week causing smoke but did not interrupt services, the state-run Indian carrier said, adding an investigation has begun.
India's aviation regulator said it was examining the incident and had sought a report from Air India.
The incident follows a fire earlier this month on a parked Ethiopian Airlines-owned 787 Dreamliner and caused extensive damage to the plane. The entire global fleet of Dreamliners was grounded for three months earlier this year due to separate battery-related problems.
Separately, Japan's ANA Holdings Inc 9202.T, which operates the world's biggest fleet of Dreamliners, said on Friday it found damage to the battery wiring on two 787 locator beacons.
The overheating of the oven during a July 24 flight from New Delhi to Kolkata did not cause a fire, an Air India spokesman said, adding they were in touch with Boeing over the issue.
"Even if there is a minor incident, it is always referred to investigation," the Air India spokesman said.
Boeing said in a statement it was aware of the issue and was working with Air India.
"Prima facie we feel that it's something to do with the oven, not with the machine (plane) as such," Arun Mishra, who heads India's civil aviation regulator, said over phone, but added he can comment further only after getting the investigation report.
Air India, which is the only Indian carrier so far to operate Dreamliner planes, has seven of the jets and has orders for 20 more.
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Matt Driskill)
A Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner lands at Le Bourget airport near Paris, June 16, 2013, one day before the 50th Paris Air Show.
Credit: Reuters/Pascal RossignolBy Praveen Menon and Siva GovindasamyDUBAI | Fri Jul 26, 2013 11:49am EDT
DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Airways said on Friday it had taken one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners out of service following what it described as a "minor" technical issue, as pressure mounted on the plane maker over possible new electrical problems with the advanced jet.
The airline and Boeing Co declined to give further details but industry sources said they were treating seriously reports that the aircraft had been grounded for days after smoke was seen near an electrical panel.
The 787 has suffered a spate of mishaps in recent weeks, including a spontaneous fire on an Ethiopian Airlines-owned 787 that broke out while the plane was parked at a remote stand at London's Heathrow airport for eight hours on July 12.
According to Web-tracking service Flightaware, the Qatar Airways aircraft, registered as A7-BCB, has not flown since Sunday, an unusually long downtime for a long-haul jet designed to save on fuel bills.
Qatar Airways confirmed an aircraft had been taken out of service, but said no flights had been canceled as a result.
"This is a minor issue for us, and not an incident, so we are not commenting," an airline spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for Boeing said, "We request that you channel all your enquiries to Qatar Airways."
Two people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified, said smoke had been reported near an electrical compartment while the jet was on the ground in Doha. A failure in a similar bay caused a fire during a test flight in 2010, and three of the jets, including one owned by Qatar Airways, had electrical problems last December.
A fire-brigade supervisor in Doha said it did not have any record of an incident with an airport-related call last week.
India's aviation regulator said earlier it had started an investigation after an oven in a 787 operated by Air India overheated during a domestic flight, causing smoke.
There was no interruption to services.
Japan's ANA Holdings Inc, which operates the world's biggest fleet of Dreamliners, also said on Friday it had found damage to the battery wiring on two 787 locator beacons, made by Honeywell International Inc.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing instructed airlines to inspect or remove the beacons, after UK investigators found two wires pinched together in the beacon inside the Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner at Heathrow. The resulting fire caused extensive damage to the plane.
PAST PROBLEMS
Last December, three 787s had electrical problems that were made public. United Airlines experienced problems with electrical panels on two 787s, one of which diverted to another airport during a flight from Houston. Qatar Airways said that month that it grounded one of its 787 jets because of the same problem United had experienced. Boeing later traced the problem to faulty circuit boards in the panel.
In January, regulators grounded the global fleet of 50 Dreamliners after batteries burned on two jets within two weeks. Regulators lifted the grounding in April after Boeing redesigned the battery system, which supplies backup power to the jet and is unrelated to the emergency beacon, known as an emergency locator transmitter, or ELT, that is designed to send out a signal to help rescuers locate an aircraft wreckage.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said in May that the airline had to forego $200 million in lost profit because of the grounding of 787 planes, but has received compensation from Boeing for the losses. At least one other airline says it is still seeking compensation.
BOEING 'HIGHLY CONFIDENT'
Aviation experts say it is common for the reported number of incidents to rise when an aircraft is in the spotlight, and that all new aircraft models have incidents when they first enter service. The 787 began service in the fall of 2011.
Even aircraft with decades of service regularly suffer glitches that go unreported and rarely pose a direct threat to safety.
However, aviation experts say U.S. and British authorities investigating the previous fires may seek to establish whether anything can be learned from a pattern of reported incidents connected in various ways to the jet's electrical systems.
Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said this week he remained "highly confident" in the future of the 787 Dreamliner program and the integrity of the company's newest airplane.
The 787 incorporates a raft of changes in the way passenger jets are designed, including greater use of electrical systems that save weight compared with older hydraulics. It is the first passenger jet built mainly from lightweight carbon-composites.
Boeing shares were down 0.9 percent at $105.76 late on Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy, Tim Hepher, Tim Kelly, Devidutta Tripathy, Regan Doherty; editing by Christian Plumb, Alwyn Scott and Matthew Lewis)
PARIS/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Boeing has asked airlines to inspect up to 1,200 aircraft across its fleet to gather data on Honeywell emergency beacons that have come under scrutiny following a fire on a parked 787 Dreamliner two weeks ago.
The blaze caused serious damage to the jet owned by Ethiopian Airlines at London's Heathrow on July 12.
Between 1,100 and 1,200 Boeing aircraft of all sizes have been fitted with the beacons, but Boeing is asking that airlines inspect as many as possible and report back within 10 days to help regulators decide what action to take, if any.
"Boeing is asking specific operators of 717, Next-Generation 737, 747-400, 767 and 777s to inspect aircraft with the Honeywell fixed emergency locator transmitters," a Boeing spokesman said in an emailed statement late on Sunday.
"The purpose of these inspections is to gather data to support potential rule-making by regulators," he added.
British accident investigators traced the fire to the area housing one of the units and recommended worldwide inspections of all lithium battery-powered emergency locator transmitters.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration instructed airlines on Thursday to remove or inspect Honeywell fixed emergency beacons in the model which caught fire, the 787, but has not so far widened its mandatory checks to other models.
The beacons in question are designed to help rescue workers locate aircraft in the event of a crash.
They are installed on approximately 20 types of aircraft, including many Boeing and Airbus passenger jets and several types of business aircraft.
"Boeing's recommendation of fleet-wide checks of the Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELT) suggests that Boeing thinks it is not a 787 problem, but an ELT problem," said Paul Hayes, director of safety at UK-based aviation consultancy Ascend.
The July 12 fire reawakened concern in the industry about Boeing's advanced carbon-composite Dreamliner, which was grounded for more three months this year after two incidents involving overheated lithium-ion batteries.
The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the London fire was not related to those batteries.
AIRBUS REVIEW
Airbus said it would carry out a review of the way the emergency beacons are installed onboard its planes, but stopped short of asking airlines to inspect them across its fleet.
"Our records do not show any incidents of this nature," a spokesman for the European planemaker said.
"However, as a precautionary measure, we will do an additional review of the integration of the device in order to determine whether there is a need to apply any lessons from the AAIB findings," the spokesman said.
The fire on the Ethiopian-owned jet broke out after it had been parked for eight hours at a remote airport stand.
It caused extensive damage in the rear of the plane and scorched the top of the outer skin of the fuselage.
Japan's ANA Holdings Inc, which operates the world's biggest fleet of Dreamliners, said last week it found damage to the battery wiring on two 787 beacons during checks.
Damage was slight, but the beacons have been sent to Honeywell for inspection, ANA said.
Qatar Airways meanwhile denied that one of its Dreamliners had caught fire after industry sources said smoke had been reported near an electrical panel, while the plane was on the ground in Doha.
The aircraft has not flown since July 21, according to web tracking data, an unusually long downtime for an active jet.
"I can unequivocally say that there was no fire. It was just a minor issue, not even an incident. We're working with Boeing to get it fixed very soon," an airline spokeswoman said.
No timeline for the repair was available.
Boeing declined to comment.
(Additional reporting by Tim Kelly and Regan Doherty; editing by Stephen Coates and Tom Pfeiffer)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday said it proposed penalizing Boeing's commercial airplane unit $2.75 million for taking nearly two years to fix a problem with fasteners on its 777 widebody airplanes.
The penalty was unusual in its size and for the fact that it comes nearly three years after Boeing said it addressed the FAA's concerns, which stem from 2008. The FAA regularly imposes smaller penalties for rule violations, but multimillion-dollar amounts are far less frequent.
The action came as Boeing's
"Safety is our top priority and a robust quality control system is a vital part of maintaining the world's safest air transportation system," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement announcing the action.
"Airplane manufacturers must take prompt and thorough steps to correct safety and compliance problems once they become aware of them," Foxx said.
Boeing said it took corrective action and closed the matter in November 2010 and is working with the FAA to "understand and address any remaining concerns."
Boeing said its actions included greater management oversight, a database for tracking issues and regular meetings with the FAA to ensure any open cases were closed on time.
STEMS FROM 2008
The FAA said Boeing discovered in September 2008 it had been installing non-conforming fasteners on its 777 airplanes, but then took more than two years to implement a plan to correct the problem, which violated regulations by failing to maintain its quality control system.
Boeing stopped using the bad fasteners after the problem was discovered, but some manufacturing issues continued until after the corrective action plan was in place, the FAA said.
"Manufacturers must make it a priority to identify and correct quality problems in a timely manner," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in the statement.
The violation carries a penalty of $25,000 a day, but the FAA said it would be willing to settle for $2.75 million and gave Boeing 30 days to respond.
Industry experts said the proposed penalty appeared unusual, not least because it came years after Boeing came into compliance. Some suggested that the FAA may be toughening its stance after being criticized for lax oversight of the 787 by the National Transportation Safety Board earlier this year.
"The headline is so out of sync with the size of the penalty, I'm inclined to view this as muscle flexing by the FAA," said Carter Leake, an investment banker with BB&T Capital Markets/Windsor Group.
The NTSB raised concerns after lithium-ion batteries burned on two 787 jets within two weeks in January. The FAA and other regulators grounded the global fleet of 50 Dreamliners for 3-1/2 months while Boeing redesigned the battery system.
"That's a pretty big fine for the FAA," said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation Inspector General. She said fasteners were a concern when she was inspector general in the 1990s, and were difficult to police because the parts don't have serial numbers.
"In this case, Boeing was cited for quality control, which suggests bad fasteners were coming in and they didn't have a system in place to catch them," she said.
The FAA's most recent large proposed penalty was a $4 million civil penalty against United Parcel Service for alleged improper maintenance of four cargo aircraft. That case stemmed from 2008 and 2009. In 2012, it proposed a $1 million penalty against Horizon Air for allegedly operating planes that were not in compliance with regulations. The violations spanned 2007 to 2011.
(Reporting by Alwyn Scott and Doug Palmer; Editing by Bill Trott, Carol Bishopric and Bernard Orr)
The damage was slight, but the beacons have been sent to the manufacturer, Honeywell International Inc , for inspection and the airline has informed local aviation regulators, an ANA spokesman, Ryousei Nomura, said.
British investigators probing the fire aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner at Heathrow airport are focusing a possible pinched wire on an emergency beacon and on condensation in the plane, which has higher humidity levels than other aircraft.
ANA has taken the built-in locator beacons out of its eight domestically operated Dreamliners with the permission of local regulators and has inspected and put back those on its 12 787s that fly international routes.
The beacons are designed to guide rescuers to downed aircraft, although in most cases close radar tracking and eyewitness reports allow air traffic controllers to pinpoint crash sites.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Matt Driskill)
"We are demanding from Boeing concrete sums that we have been able to calculate," said LOT CEO Sebastian Mikosz. "Unfortunately, it's not possible to estimate all the losses to our image related to the loss of credibility among some of our customers."
LOT was the first European airline to add Boeing's Dreamliner to its fleet before they were grounded over problems with their batteries. LOT currently has four Dreamliners.
(Reporting by Chris Borowski)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Airways said on Friday it had taken one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners out of service following what it described as a "minor" technical issue, as pressure mounted on the plane maker over possible new electrical problems with the advanced jet.
The airline and Boeing Co declined to give further details but industry sources said they were treating seriously reports that the aircraft had been grounded for days after smoke was seen near an electrical panel.
The 787 has suffered a spate of mishaps in recent weeks, including a spontaneous fire on an Ethiopian Airlines-owned 787 that broke out while the plane was parked at a remote stand at London's Heathrow airport for eight hours on July 12.
According to Web-tracking service Flightaware, the Qatar Airways aircraft, registered as A7-BCB, has not flown since Sunday, an unusually long downtime for a long-haul jet designed to save on fuel bills.
Qatar Airways confirmed an aircraft had been taken out of service, but said no flights had been canceled as a result.
"This is a minor issue for us, and not an incident, so we are not commenting," an airline spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for Boeing said, "We request that you channel all your enquiries to Qatar Airways."
Two people familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified, said smoke had been reported near an electrical compartment while the jet was on the ground in Doha. A failure in a similar bay caused a fire during a test flight in 2010, and three of the jets, including one owned by Qatar Airways, had electrical problems last December.
A fire-brigade supervisor in Doha said it did not have any record of an incident with an airport-related call last week.
India's aviation regulator said earlier it had started an investigation after an oven in a 787 operated by Air India overheated during a domestic flight, causing smoke.
There was no interruption to services.
Japan's ANA Holdings Inc, which operates the world's biggest fleet of Dreamliners, also said on Friday it had found damage to the battery wiring on two 787 locator beacons, made by Honeywell International Inc.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing instructed airlines to inspect or remove the beacons, after UK investigators found two wires pinched together in the beacon inside the Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner at Heathrow. The resulting fire caused extensive damage to the plane.
PAST PROBLEMS
Last December, three 787s had electrical problems that were made public. United Airlines experienced problems with electrical panels on two 787s, one of which diverted to another airport during a flight from Houston. Qatar Airways said that month that it grounded one of its 787 jets because of the same problem United had experienced. Boeing later traced the problem to faulty circuit boards in the panel.
In January, regulators grounded the global fleet of 50 Dreamliners after batteries burned on two jets within two weeks. Regulators lifted the grounding in April after Boeing redesigned the battery system, which supplies backup power to the jet and is unrelated to the emergency beacon, known as an emergency locator transmitter, or ELT, that is designed to send out a signal to help rescuers locate an aircraft wreckage.
Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said in May that the airline had to forego $200 million in lost profit because of the grounding of 787 planes, but has received compensation from Boeing for the losses. At least one other airline says it is still seeking compensation.
BOEING 'HIGHLY CONFIDENT'
Aviation experts say it is common for the reported number of incidents to rise when an aircraft is in the spotlight, and that all new aircraft models have incidents when they first enter service. The 787 began service in the fall of 2011.
Even aircraft with decades of service regularly suffer glitches that go unreported and rarely pose a direct threat to safety.
However, aviation experts say U.S. and British authorities investigating the previous fires may seek to establish whether anything can be learned from a pattern of reported incidents connected in various ways to the jet's electrical systems.
Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney said this week he remained "highly confident" in the future of the 787 Dreamliner program and the integrity of the company's newest airplane.
The 787 incorporates a raft of changes in the way passenger jets are designed, including greater use of electrical systems that save weight compared with older hydraulics. It is the first passenger jet built mainly from lightweight carbon-composites.
Boeing shares were down 0.9 percent at $105.76 late on Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy, Tim Hepher, Tim Kelly, Devidutta Tripathy, Regan Doherty; editing by Christian Plumb, Alwyn Scott and Matthew Lewis)
