Boeing Updates ZA002 incident investigation

Boeing just put out a press release that give us our first view as to what MAY have been the problem. Boeing is saying that a power control panel in the aft electronics bay will need to be replaced. This doesn't necessarily mean that the power control panel was the cause of the fire. That determination will have to wait until the investigative team has completed it's analysis of the data from ZA002. Boeing is indicating that this may take a few days. It's safe to assume that the 787 test fleet will continue to be on the ground until that time at the very least....perhaps longer if modifications have to be made in some of the systems that have found to cause the fire.

Boeing obviously will not say anything about possible impact to the schedule until the investigation is complete and fixes have been identified. Ground testing will continue on the airplanes while the investigation is on going.

Also Flightblogger has had made several updates with regards to ZA002. You can read them here:

Flightblogger: Flash: 787 test fleet grounded after electrical fire

Here's Boeing's Press Release:

Update on Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA002 Incident

EVERETT, Wash., Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- During approach to Laredo,Texas, yesterday, airplane ZA002 lost primary electrical power as a result of an onboard electrical fire. Backup systems, including the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), functioned as expected and allowed the crew to complete a safe landing. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by Boeing.

The pilots executed a safe landing and at all times had positive control of the airplane and all of the information necessary to perform that safe landing.

Initial inspection appears to indicate that a power control panel in the aft electronics bay will need to be replaced on ZA002. We are inspecting the power panel and surrounding area near that panel to determine if other repairs will be necessary.

We have retrieved flight data from the airplane and are analyzing it in Seattle. This process will take several days. We are committed to finding the cause quickly but will not rush the technical team in its efforts.

The team was conducting monitoring of the Nitrogen Generation System at the time of the incident but there is no reason to suspect that the monitoring or earlier testing of that system had anything to do with the incident.

Consistent with our internal processes, until we better understand the cause of the incident on ZA002, we have decided to postpone flight test activities on other airplanes. Ground test activities will be conducted until flight test resumes.

Likewise, we cannot determine the impact of this event on the overall program schedule until we have worked our way through the data. Teams have been working through the night and will continue to work until analysis is complete and a path forward is determined.