Air accident investigators in London said that a fire inside a parked Boeing 787 Dreamliner did not appear to be caused by any problems with the plane’s lithium-ion batteries, reports the New York Times.
That finding was a relief to Boeing and the 13 airlines that own the planes, which were grounded for four months worldwide this year after two episodes involving fire or smoke from the batteries.
But independent experts said it was hard to understand what could have caused heat intense enough to sear the carbon-composite skin on the top of the jet, leaving the possibility that Boeing could still face a setback if problems are found with another system on the plane.
Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, which is in charge of the inquiry, said in a statement Saturday that it was still trying to identify the cause of the fire, which occurred on an unoccupied Ethiopian Airlines 787 at Heathrow Airport. The statement said that the fire resulted in smoke throughout the plane and extensive heat damage in the upper part of the rear fuselage. But, the investigation branch said, the damage was not near either of the plane’s lithium-ion batteries. “At this stage,” the statement said, “there is no evidence of a direct causal relationship” between the batteries and the fire.
The regulator said its initial inquiry would most likely take several days. Other safety experts said the causes could include heated elements left in a galley just below where the fire burned the jet’s carbon-composite skin, a poorly installed part, or a short in the plane’s electrical system.
But given all the fire-retardant materials in the plane, Hans J. Weber, an aviation consultant at Tecop International in San Diego, said it was puzzling how the fire could have gotten hot enough to cause so much damage to the plane, which had been parked on the runway for eight hours.
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