Another Boeing 787 Fire, This Time In London
Not a lot of information out there right now, but there’s a reported fire on an empty Ethiopian Airlines 787 parked at Heathrow.
Ethiopian flies the 787 from Addis Ababa, Bole (ADD) to LHR. If the plane was empty as reported my guess is that it’s been on the ground for quite some time, since the flights I see on the schedule generally arrive in London at around 9:00 am local time and it’s now 6pm BST. Oddly, ITA doesn’t appear to list a direct flight ADD-LHR, so I’m not 100% sure that’s the plane sitting at Heathrow now.
At any rate, if the fire occurred in the afternoon it’s likely the plane has been there for a while which is a potentially bad sign of another problem with a battery overheating without any sort of explanation.
I’ll keep hunting for more information, but it’s not shocking Boeing stock tanked when this news was announced. Unexplained fires on airplanes are kinda bad for business.
UPDATE: Just saw this picture of some potential fire damage on Milepoint. I think that’s an odd place for batteries on a plane, but anything is possible. Cautiously optimistic this is unrelated to previous issues.
Related Posts:
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- When Do We Get The Dreamliner Back?
- FAA Approves Boeing 787 Certification Plan
- Pizza In The News: 787 Article in The Huffington Post
I would bet $100 its not related to the battery, its in the wrong location. It actually looks like its close to where the aft crew rest should be. See page 4 of this document: http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/arff/arff787.pdf
Thanks, Charlie. I suspect you have a much better base of knowledge on this one than I do.
Unfortunately I don’t know whether this makes me feel better or worse about this. I suppose it’s good because it indicates that the battery fix is not a failure, but it’s bad because it might indicate other problems. Hopefully someone just forgot to put their cigarette out in the crew rest or something else not related to the 787 itself.
Charlie, I feel the same way. The 787 doesn’t need more uncertainty.