Friday, July 12, 2013

Ethiopian 787 fire update

UPDATE: saw this on avherald.com if true then Boeing may have caught a break:

The aircraft fire is unrelated to the batteries. This will be confirmed tomorrow in a boeing press conference. Fire is strongly believed to be as a result of galley overheat - failure of coffee heater trip switch which was left on.Burnt out much of the galley and area above causing deep damage to aft bh and rudder/elevator system. Aircraft sadly a write off - unless pride of hull loss/p.r dictates repair even if economically un-viable."

Thus far there is still no word on what may have sparked the fire on ZA261 (LN 44, ET-AOP) but investigators from the UK's AAIB (Air Accident Investigation Branch) with NTSB and FAA personnel to support (along with Boeing) are enroute to London to begin the formal investigation into the fire.

The events in London, this afternoon, has not had an effect of 787 operations around the world.  Indeed, airlines continue to operate the aircraft in revenue service but are keeping a close eye on event at Heathrow.

Boeing continue production testing of the 787s at Everett with two flights today: ZA468 (LN 116, A7-BCG) and ZA186 (LN 105, JA832J).  I'll update the blog as more information becomes available.


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9 comments:

1coolguy1 said...

Seems much too early to declare the plane a total write-off.

Hopefully the cause of the fire is true.

Anonymous said...

That sounds like it could be,but if the plane was powered down,where would it draw power from? Or did they power back up the plane for the return leg. I hope this is the fault howeve,i wonder if this just a faulty switch or something more, huge damage just from a trip switch failing.

Andrew Munsell said...

If it were a coffe pot, 8+ hours seems to me to be more than enough time to catch fire however I don't drink coffee. This is not Boeings week is it. Asiana flight 214, and Ethiopian 787 fire.

Uresh said...

Asiana was not Boeing's fault

Andrew Munsell said...

I know that but what I meant was 2 Boeing incidents in one week. Especially if Ethiopian decides to write this off. 2 Write-off's in 1 week

Piotrek_ said...

LN100 ZA385 listed as B-2736 not B-2734
http://boeing-test-flights.blogspot.com/2013/07/b-2736-b787-8-china-southern-first.html

Piotrek_ said...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/microvolt/9290834300/
LN36 ZA381 B-2726 painted, moved to EMC again.

Uresh said...

Where does it say it's been moved to the EMC?

Piotrek_ said...

From webcam:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/3979/3em2.jpg
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/8792/cyvn.jpg
-> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Aerial_Paine_Field_August_2009.jpg

this is way to EMC or to the end of PAE's RWY 34L

You can try to confirm it with Matt Cawby, he was yesterday in PAE.