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Another Boeing 787 Dreamliner fire, closes Heathrow

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N

Nevasleep

Member
A fire on a parked Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner plane has forced both runways at Heathrow Airport to close.

Nobody was onboard the aircraft which was stationed at a remote parking stand and no injuries have been reported.

A spokesperson for the airport said the plane suffered an internal fire.

All arrivals and departures have been suspended at the West London airport due to the fire which was reported shortly after 4.30pm.

Footage from the Skycopter showed fire retardant foam on the runway around the plane with at least nine fire engines in attendance.

The aircraft is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a model which the company temporarily withdrew from service earlier this year for modifications after concerns that batteries on board could cause fires.

A Boeing spokesman said: "We're aware of the event. We have Boeing personnel on the ground at Heathrow and are working to fully understand and address this."

Boeing shares were down 5 percent in New York immediately following the news.

The Civil Aviation Authority has said that at this stage they will not be investigating the fire.
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cegrab-20130712-171751-159-1-522x293.jpg

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Shame, thought they had fixed the problems. Heathrow has reopened, after an hour.

EDIT: Previous fire thread
 
N

navanman

Crown Prince of Custom Firmware
Fire in the tail section again where batteries are stored.
Ethiopian Airlines were first airline to have the safety upgrades completed
 
V

Veidt

Blasphemer who refuses to accept bagged milk as his personal savior
Most boeings operated by airlines are old as hell. They essentially recycle the same machine over so many years. At least that's what I heard.
 
N

navanman

Crown Prince of Custom Firmware
Veidt said:
Most boeings operated by airlines are old as hell. They essentially recycle the same machine over so many years.
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This plane is brand new. Its cutting edge technology could end up severely damaging Boeing's future
 
D

DBT85

Member
Veidt said:
Most boeings operated by airlines are old as hell. They essentially recycle the same machine over so many years. At least that's what I heard.
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You don't replace what ain't broken. Still 747s flying from ages ago. They get regular services and updates as required.

Anyway, these are the Dreamliners.

Really want to fly on one or on the A380. Dat higher cabin pressure.
 
S

Scipius

Member
Divvy said:
Not really. All new plane models have issues when they first roll out. The 787 has had half the rate of issues as the A380 so far.
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That is unlikely. After its production delays, the A380 had a relatively smooth start of service; Airbus had used the delay to iron out many of the early issues.

Whereas the 787 continues to be a problem child, even after its severe production issues. If this is another battery issue, Boeing is going to have some explaining to do.
 
K

kagete

Member
ThreePiMatt said:
Unrelated to the fire, how the hell is Ethopian Airlines flying a 787 and yet of the major US airlines only United has a one?
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US airlines make money filling up 50-80 seaters via smaller partner airlines to fly short routes. A small plane like a CRJ can make 4 round trip flights in one day. Very few markets support and require a larger plane and with these longer routes they barely make one round trip a day, if at all, so they're not very profitable.

Also, as already mentioned, those old 747s are still flying. They're so old that the insides that were once off-white are now yellowing with age just like all other plastic from the 70s and 80s.
 
D

Divvy

Canadians burned my passport
Scipius said:
That is unlikely. After its production delays, the A380 had a relatively smooth start of service; Airbus had used the delay to iron out many of the early issues.

Whereas the 787 continues to be a problem child, even after its severe production issues. If this is another battery issue, Boeing is going to have some explaining to do.
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I should have specified within it's first year.

Here's an article:

On balance, the 787 has now had six reported mechanical incidents in 2013 with a little under 60 aircraft in service. It's a higher rate of failure than more mature aircraft ranging from the Boeing 737 to the Airbus A340, but "teething" is commonplace for newer airliners as engineers work out the kinks. Take the enormous A380 double-decker, for instance, which had around a dozen reported mechanical incidents in 2009 — a year that ended with just 23 aircraft having been delivered to airlines around the world. That's roughly half an incident per aircraft. If the Dreamliner continues having problems at its current rate, it will end 2013 with roughly one fifth of an incident per aircraft.
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http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/24/4459156/latest-incidents-mean-little-for-young-boeing-787-dreamliner
 
S

Scipius

Member
Divvy said:
I should have specified within it's first year.

Here's an article:



http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/24/4459156/latest-incidents-mean-little-for-young-boeing-787-dreamliner
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A meaningless statistic; what that article is conveniently forgetting is that in 2013 the 787 was not even flying for more than 3 months because its issues were so severe it had to be grounded worldwide. Meanwhile, all A380s kept on flying throughout 2009, with a few cancellations here and there no doubt. What you need is the incident rate per flight and I'm fairly sure the 787 isn't looking too well in this category.
 
M

moist

Member
Scipius said:
A meaningless statistic; what that article is conveniently forgetting is that in 2013 the 787 was not even flying for more than 3 months because its issues were so severe it had to be grounded worldwide. Meanwhile, all A380s kept on flying throughout 2009, with a few cancellations here and there no doubt. What you need is the incident rate per flight and I'm fairly sure the 787 isn't looking too well in this category.
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Hey it's still doing better than the Comet did!
 
C

caramac

Member
Apologies for going off topic but I just want to say that the A380 is one gigantic beast of an aircraft. An Emirates one en route to Dubai flew pretty close to my house the other day. It was at around 17,000 ft on a climb out of Manchester UK. Amazing.
 
T

Timbuktu

Member
Ditto. Flying BA's new A380 to Hong Kong for Xmas will be quite nice.

No matter what the numbers, A380 didn't have such bad press back then. The worst thing for Boeing probably is have the word 'fire' printed on all the headlines.
 
I

Incognito

Troll
Don't think this is a battery related issue. Nonetheless, still bad news for Boeing fresh off the heels of all the battery disasters earlier in the year.
 
K

Knoxcore

Member
That's why I'll never fly on a new aviation product at least until a few years into its service. New products tend to have more delays and more mechanical issues that cause delays. Wait a couple years until Boeing solves these problems.
 
Lactose_Intolerant

Lactose_Intolerant

Member
I just checked this out with a person that works on these planes and they said that this company never grounded their planes but all the battery issues had been replaced.

So it is probably a new problem.
 
S

Scipius

Member
Lactose_Intolerant said:
I just checked this out with a person that works on these planes and they said that this company never grounded their planes but all the battery issues had been replaced.

So it is probably a new problem.
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Ethiopia grounded their 787s just like everyone else. That said, it could very likely be a new problem. The images show the fire burnt through the roof of the plane, whereas the batteries are located in the hold.

It could be a failure of another electrical system (still bad for Boeing) or an accidental action from people in the plane (flightcrew, cleaners, maintenance). The latter would put Boeing in the clear, but either way it doesn't help the 787's reputation.
 
M

mavs

Member
Lactose_Intolerant said:
I just checked this out with a person that works on these planes and they said that this company never grounded their planes but all the battery issues had been replaced.

So it is probably a new problem.
Click to expand...

CNBC said this airline took the first delivery of the "fixed" 787s. Then Boeing's stock dropped a couple dollars more.
 
B

bachikarn

Member
I don't think the 787 is having an abnormal amount of issues for a completely new airplane, but it has such bad PR that every issue is going to make the headlines.
 
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