Amtrak safety record under scrutiny even before deadly derailment

Amtrak engineer remarked on train speed 6 seconds before crash: NTSB http://reut.rs/2BRkVha Reuters) - Six seconds before an Amtrak train derailed off a bridge and onto a highway near Seattle, the engineer remarked that the train was speeding, U.S. investigators said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: The scene where an Amtrak passenger train derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5 in DuPont, Washington, December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola The engineer then applied the brakes but apparently not the emergency brake, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a statement after retrieving and reviewing data from the data recorder and inward- and outward-facing cameras. Sponsored Monday’s crash south of Seattle killed three people and sent about 100 others to hospitals. All 12 cars and one of the two engines jumped the tracks at a curve, sending some cars tumbling from a bridge onto an interstate highway. The board previously said the train was going about 80 miles per hour (129 km per hour) in a 30-mph zone. On Friday it said the final recorded speed of the locomotive was 78 mph. ADVERTISING The train’s video cameras were damaged in the crash but investigators were able to download the contents with the manufacturer’s help at the NTSB lab in Washington, the board said in a statement. “About six seconds prior to the derailment, the engineer made a comment regarding an over speed condition,” the board said. “The engineer’s actions were consistent with the application of the locomotive’s brakes just before the recording ended. It did not appear the engineer placed the brake handle in emergency-braking mode,” the board said. The cameras did not show the crew using any personal electronic devices, the board said. Such use is of interest since a Southern California Metrolink commuter train crashed into a freight train in 2008, killing 25 people and injuring 111 others. The board determined the engineer was distracted by text messaging. Amtrak President Richard Anderson on Friday urged faster national rollout of another safety measure, Positive Train Control (PTC), that can automatically slow speeding trains and might have prevented the Washington accident. PTC must be installed on all U.S. trains and tracks by the end of 2018. It was not operational on the track, owned by the Sound Transit commuter rail, where the Amtrak train derailed. “It is imperative that the rail industry urgently work together to get PTC activated on the national network as soon as possible, and certainly by the December 2018 federal deadline, if not before,” Anderson said in a statement. About half of Amtrak’s locomotives and two-thirds of its track had PTC as of June, U.S. data show. Reporting by Daniel Trotta in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Susan Thomas =================== The Latest: Train's emergency brake automatically activated The Latest: Train's emergency brake automatically activated The Associated Press December 19, 2017 06:50 PM UPDATED 5 MINUTES AGO DUPONT, Wash. The Latest on an Amtrak train derailment in Washington state (all times local): 3:50 p.m. U.S. investigators say preliminary information indicates that the emergency brake on the Amtrak train that derailed in Washington state went off automatically. National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr told reporters Tuesday that the brake was not manually activated by the engineer. She says they're reviewing the event data recorder from the lead locomotive after having already retrieved the device from the rear engine, which showed the train was going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. Dinh-Zarr confirmed two people were in the cab: the engineer and a conductor who was training. Federal officials also say the conductor had been qualified to operate the train in the area in the last couple of weeks, but the NTSB is looking into the process. ___ 2 p.m. Critical safety technology designed to automatically slow or stop trains that are going too fast was not working on a section of track outside of Seattle where an Amtrak train derailed, killing three people. Sound Transit said Tuesday that the company was on schedule to have positive train control installed and operational in the spring, ahead of a December 2018 federal deadline. The system would be able to take over control of a train when an engineer is distracted or incapacitated. Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said the "vast majority" of equipment needed had been installed but not fully operational along the tracks and trains in the 14.5-mile (23.3-kilometer) section of line where the derailment occurred. ___ 11:30 a.m. A relative says a rail advocate is one of the three people killed in the deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington state. Rachel Topper said Tuesday that she has been notified of the death of her uncle Jim Hamre in Monday's crash. Topper said the family has no further comment. In a Facebook post, she said they were heartbroken and that Hamre will be missed by many. Lloyd Flem, executive director of rail advocacy organization All Aboard Washington, says Hamre retired a few years ago as a civil engineer at the Washington Transportation Department. He says Hamre lived with his mother in Puyallup. Another rail advocate, Zack Willhoite, also died when the train plunged off an overpass and onto Interstate 5 south of Seattle on Monday. The train was making its first run on faster route. ___ 11:25 a.m. Authorities say they're starting to move train cars that derailed outside Seattle and hurtled onto a highway below, killing three people. Capt. Dan Hall with the Washington State Patrol says the cars will be loaded onto trucks starting Tuesday and taken to a secure facility as the National Transportation Safety Board investigates. State Transportation Department spokesman Travis Phelps says Interstate 5 will be closed through Tuesday night and could be shut down for several days as officials finish the investigation at the scene. He says the next step is assessing the overpass and the road below. The Amtrak train derailed during its inaugural run along a new faster route. U.S. investigators say they haven't determined a cause of the crash but revealed that the train was traveling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. ___ 10:35 a.m. A U.S. official says investigators are examining whether an Amtrak engineer was distracted when a speeding train derailed, killing three people and sending several rail cars flying off an overpass. The official said Tuesday that in addition to the engineer, there was another employee training in the train's cab Monday. The official says investigators are looking into whether the engineer lost "situational awareness." The official wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Audio dispatch in which a crew member discusses injuries to the engineer mentions a second person in the front of the train, who was also hurt. ___ 9:14 a.m. A victim in the deadly Amtrak derailment in Washington state has been identified as an employee of a local transit agency and a rail advocate. Pierce Transit released a statement saying that Zack Willhoite, a customer service support specialist, was killed in Monday's derailment. Authorities say three people died and dozens were injured when the train plunged off an overpass over Interstate 5 south of Seattle. The train was making its inaugural run. Pierce Transit says Willhoite was "admired by his colleagues." Lloyd Flem, executive director of All Aboard Washington, says Willhoite was a rail advocate and it was a given that he would be on the trip. Federal investigators say they haven't determined a cause of the derailment but revealed that the train was travelling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. ___ 8:35 a.m. Crews have removed train cars involved in a deadly Amtrak derailment from a railway overpass in Washington state. Authorities say there are three confirmed deaths. Dozens were injured. The train cars were loaded Tuesday onto flatbed trucks and drive away on Interstate 5. Authorities say a total of 13 train cars jumped the tracks early Monday south of Seattle. The Amtrak train careened off the overpass above Interstate 5 during its inaugural run along a new bypass route. The train carried 85 passengers and crew members. Federal investigators say they haven't determined a cause of the derailment but revealed late Monday that the train was travelling 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. Investigators are on the scene. A worker walks along a damaged train car atop a flat bed trailer taken from the scene of Monday's fatal Amtrak train crash onto Interstate 5 Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in DuPont, Wash. The Amtrak train that plunged off an overpass south of Seattle was hurtling 50 mph over the speed limit when it jumped the track, federal investigators said. Elaine Thompson AP Photo Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/business/national-business/article190558744.html#storylink=cpy http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/business/national-business/article190558744.html ================ David Shepardson, Daniel Trotta 5 Min Read (Reuters) - The fatal derailment of an Amtrak train south of Seattle on Monday is likely to intensify scrutiny of the national passenger railroad company’s safety record, which was already under the microscope following a series of fatal incidents. The scene where an Amtrak passenger train derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5 in DuPont, Washington, U.S. December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said late on Monday that a data recorder retrieved from the rear locomotive showed the train was traveling at 80 miles (130 km) an hour in a 30-mile-per hour zone when it jumped the tracks. Sponsored The NTSB said it was too soon to say if that contributed to the crash, which killed at least three people, and it could take months for the board’s investigators to reach a conclusion. Amtrak’s co-chief executive, Richard Anderson, told reporters earlier on Monday he would not speculate on the cause of the crash, and that safety was the firm’s top priority. But he acknowledged that positive train control (PTC), a system that automatically slows trains if they are going too fast, had not been installed on that stretch of track. Just last month, the NTSB chairman issued a scathing critique of Amtrak’s culture, saying a future breakdown was likely, and the board made nine safety recommendations. “Amtrak’s safety culture is failing and is primed to fail again, until and unless Amtrak changes the way it practices safety management,” Robert Sumwalt said on Nov. 14. Sumwalt’s statement was made in conjunction with the NTSB’s findings into a fatal Amtrak accident in April 2016 in Pennsylvania, which it said was caused by “deficient safety management across many levels of Amtrak and the resultant lack of a clear, consistent and accepted vision for safety.” In that crash an Amtrak train struck a backhoe tractor on railroad tracks in Chester, Pennsylvania, killing two maintenance workers and injuring 41. It occurred a few miles south of the site of a May 2015 derailment in which eight people were killed and more than 200 injured. Sumwalt told a hearing the board’s investigation “revealed more than two dozen unsafe conditions and not all of these were rule-breaking by frontline employees.” Amtrak named former Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Officer Anderson as co-CEO last summer. Anderson also told reporters on Monday that Amtrak took NTSB recommendations from investigations “very seriously” and was continuing to make investments that the board recommended. Amtrak said in a memo to employees in November seen by Reuters that it had been “transforming our safety culture” since the Pennsylvania incident and had made numerous reforms, including to communication, training, safety efforts and creating a team that conducts safety audits. It also expanded drug and alcohol testing. SLOW ROLLOUT OF SAFETY SYSTEM On Monday, a U.S. congressman from Washington state called attention to the slow rollout of PTC. “We don’t know that it could have saved lives ... but it is a disappointment to me that we’re not further along in the implementation of installing PTC,” Representative Denny Heck, a Democrat, told CNN. Congress had mandated the implementation of PTC nationwide by the end of 2015, then extended that deadline until the end of 2018 when its installation became more complex than anticipated. “There is a money issue because while Congress mandated the implementation of PTC on the railroads they didn’t give any money for it, so it is self-funded,” said Allan Zarembski, director of the Railroad Engineering and Safety Program at the University of Delaware. Zarembski cautioned against assigning blame for Monday’s accident, noting that Amtrak does not own the track where the accident occurred. Related Video It is owned by the Seattle-area Sound Transit agency. “The railways generally are very safe,” he said. “I‘m very reluctant to point the finger and say the railroads are a major problem here.” A spokesman for Sound Transit, Geoff Patrick, said the track had recently been upgraded to handle passenger trains from its prior use for slow-moving freight trains. He said Sound Transit was part of the incident response and was working with the NTSB in its investigation. Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Daniel Trotta in New York; Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California and Keith Coffman in Denver, Colorado; Editing by Leslie Adler and John Stonestreet

Philadelphia train may have been hit by projectile before wreck

Amtrak Ordered to Modify Signal System Following Deadly Crash Federal Railroad Administration orders modification to protect against speeding at sharp curves By Ted Mann And May 15, 2015 11:56 p.m. ET The Federal Railroad Administration has ordered Amtrak to modify its existing signal system to protect against speeding at multiple sharp curves along the Northeast Corridor, including the one where a train derailed Tuesday, killing eight passengers, people familiar with the matter said Friday. Amtrak will change an existing automatic braking system to guard against speeding trains at the curving section of northbound track ======================== Philadelphia train may have been hit by projectile before wreck Fri, May 15 19:53 PM EDT image 1 of 7 By Jarrett Renshaw PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia and a separate commuter train in the vicinity may have been hit by projectiles of some kind shortly before the wreck, a U.S. transportation safety official said on Friday, after investigators interviewed members of the Amtrak crew. But the Amtrak engineer said he had no memory of anything that happened in the moments leading up to the crash when questioned for the first time about Tuesday night's wreck that killed eight people and injured more than 200 others, said Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). An assistant conductor told NTSB investigators on Friday that she heard the engineer, 32-year-old Brandon Bostian, talking by radio with the driver of another train from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The other driver reported that his windshield had been cracked by a projectile that he believed was either fired from a gun or thrown at the train. According to the conductor's account, Bostian replied that he believed his New York-bound Amtrak train had been similarly struck after pulling out of its previous stop, Sumwalt said. It was moments later that the Amtrak train barreled into a curve at more than 100 miles per hour (160 km per hour), twice the speed limit, in the city's Port Richmond neighborhood along the Delaware River. Sumwalt said investigators still have no explanation for why the train was going as fast as it was, and why it had accelerated from 70 mph to 100-plus mph in the 65 seconds before the crash, as was shown on video footage taken by a camera mounted on the locomotive. The engineer had slammed on the emergency breaking system seconds before the wreck, investigators said. Sumwalt said on Friday that Bostian, who has spoken with investigators with his lawyer present and was cooperative, told them he had no recollection of doing that, or of anything else from the time the train had departed from its previous stop. Experts said the train's speed in the moments before the crash raised several questions: Could a technical glitch have caused the locomotive to speed up so rapidly? Would it take a deliberate action by the engineer? Or could human error, a medical issue, or some other factor like clumsiness explain the sudden burst of speed? Sumwalt said the train, as designed, can only be accelerated by manual control, but the NTSB would examine whether a mechanical malfunction could have caused the train to speed up on its own. He said Bostian reported to investigators that he had experienced some technical problems on his way south to Washington from New York earlier that day. He did not elaborate. (This version of the story corrects last name of engineer to Bostian, not Bostion) (Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst and Barbara Goldberg in New York, and David Morgan and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Frank McGurty and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Shumaker)

New York City train derailment caused $9 million in damage: NTSB

New York City train derailment caused $9 million in damage: NTSB Tue, Jan 14 17:20 PM EST image By Marina Lopes NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York commuter train derailment that killed four people in December caused more than $9 million in damage, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday. A preliminary report issued by the federal agency found the train's signal system, brakes and other mechanical equipment were functioning normally when all seven of its cars derailed in the Bronx. The finding may bolster allegations that train engineer William Rockefeller, 46, was to blame for the crash. Investigators say Rockefeller told them he "zoned out" as the train sped through a curve at 82 miles per hour, (132 km per hour), nearly three times the speed limit. The crash also critically injured 75 of the 115 people on board and snarled travel for the roughly 26,000 regular commuters on the Metro-North Hudson line, which serves suburbs north of New York City. The report could be instrumental in determining whether the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parent of Metro-North, will be held liable for the crash, legal experts said. While the new information in the report adds evidence that human error may have caused the derailment, the MTA could still be held liable for the negligence of its employees under a common-law doctrine known as "vicarious liability," experts said shortly after the crash. Michael Lamonsoff, a lawyer who represents 10 people injured in the derailment who have given legal notice they plan to sue, said the accident could have been prevented if an alert system had been properly installed. "All these people were assuming they were traveling safely, but they were playing Russian roulette with the possibility of a human error that could have occurred," Lamonsoff said. While the train was equipped with an alerting system in its rear car, sources told Reuters, the driver was running the train from a "control cab" at the front of the first passenger carriage. (Reporting by Marina Lopes; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Steve Orlofsky) =================================== Analysis: Two factors key to lawsuits over New York train crash Thu, Dec 05 01:03 AM EST image By Andrew Longstreth NEW YORK (Reuters) - For lawyers preparing to sue over Sunday's deadly New York commuter rail accident, their success in court may depend largely on two factors: whether human error caused the derailment and if state or federal law governs railroad safety in the case. Tens or hundreds of millions of dollars could be at stake, based on previous cases. A Cook County, Illinois, jury in 2009, awarded more than $29.5 million to a Chicago woman injured in a 2005 commuter train derailment. The investigation into the Metro-North derailment in the Bronx, which killed four and critically injured 11, has centered on the actions of the train's engineer, William Rockefeller. He told investigators he lost focus right before the crash, his labor union leader told Reuters. Investigators have said the seven-car train was traveling at 82 mph, nearly three times the speed limit for the curved section of track where it crashed. A lawyer for Rockefeller was not immediately available for comment, and the National Transportation Safety Board has said it has not reached a conclusion into the accident's cause and would continue its work for weeks, if not months. Authorities have not found any mechanical problems with the train so far, but a safety system designed to keep an engineer alert was not installed in the car from which Rockefeller was controlling the train, a source familiar with the railroad's operation told Reuters. If government investigators determine human error caused the derailment, the agency operating the train could be held liable for the negligence of its employees under a common-law doctrine known as "vicarious liability." That doctrine could apply, experts say, even if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parent of Metro-North, can say it had no reason to question the engineer's competence. "The case will turn on his conduct, not on the conduct of the MTA," UCLA law professor Richard Abel said. If the accident is deemed to have been caused by a mechanical failure, liability could be spread among several possible defendants, including manufacturers of any parts found to have failed and various contractors. No lawsuits have yet been filed in the wake of the crash, but New York plaintiffs' attorney Michael Lamonsoff told Reuters on Wednesday he had notified Metro-North that he planned to file a negligence suit on behalf of two injured passengers. Another lawyer, Joel Faxon of New Haven, Connecticut, said he had consulted with two families about potential claims. The MTA "own the crash" if there was personnel error, he said. A spokesman for the MTA declined to comment about the agency's potential liability. Metro-North carries $10 million in liability insurance coverage and the MTA has an additional $50 million through a subsidiary, an MTA official said. The agency also has $350 million in coverage through commercial markets, the official said. FEDERAL OR STATE LAW? But there is a way for Metro-North to avoid liability - by arguing that federal law, not state law, governs the case. Defendants can argue that claims typically brought under state law, including negligence, are in fact barred if the conduct at issue is governed by federal laws and regulations. The doctrine is known as federal pre-emption, and a number of federal statutes address railroad safety and maintenance issues. If a defendant prevails on the pre-emption issue, it can avoid liability if it can show it complied with federal requirements. The challenge for the plaintiffs in the New York case is to plead claims that avoid citing conduct covered in relevant federal laws and regulations, said Mike Danko, a California plaintiffs' attorney. "That's where the fight is going to be," he said. Metro-North, in fact, raised that argument in lawsuits filed earlier this year by people injured in a May collision of two of its trains in Connecticut. Those lawsuits are still in their early stages and the pre-emption issue has not been resolved. Even if it loses on all those issues, Metro-North is likely to argue that as a public entity, it is immune from punitive damages. In civil litigation, judges or juries often award damages to the winning plaintiffs both to compensate them for their injuries and to punish the defendant. But government agencies are often shielded from punitive damages. Metro-North has also raised that defense in the litigation stemming from the May accident. If the railway is sued and loses, federal law allows awards of up to $200 million in total to rail passengers for all claims arising from a single incident. (Reporting by Andrew Longstreth; Editing by Eric Effron, Peter Henderson and Peter Cooney) ===========================

In Boeing 787 battery probe, x-rays may offer clues to past incidents

In Boeing 787 battery probe, x-rays may offer clues to past incidents By Alwyn Scott and Tim Kelly TOKYO/SEATTLE Thu Jan 16, 2014 3:02am EST An undamaged battery used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet is seen in this picture provided by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and obtained by Reuters on January 16, 2013. REUTERS/U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/Handout/Files Credit: Reuters/U.S. National Transportation Safety Board/Handout/Files Related Topics Japan » Aerospace & Defense » (Reuters) - Investigators in Japan are studying x-ray images of a lithium-ion battery from when it left the factory, hoping these may shed some light on why it appeared to overheat on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet earlier this week. They will be looking for possible anomalies in the battery, which is made by Japanese firm GS Yuasa, and hope this could also help them resolve two similar battery incidents on separate 787 planes a year ago. The battery damaged on a Japan Airlines (JAL) Dreamliner this week could provide more clues to investigators if it has survived in better condition than the ones scorched in incidents on a JAL 787 in Boston last year and on an ANA Holdings 787 in Japan just a few days later. GS Yuasa scans the eight-cell batteries with an x-ray-like system before they are shipped, and the images are checked for a list of potential problems to ensure the batteries are not flawed, said John Goglia, a former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member. Those images will be used as a basis for looking for other problems that could have caused the 787 batteries to erupt. "They'll now go back and examine those to see if there's anything they missed," Goglia said. GS Yuasa declined to comment on whether it was looking at x-rays of the battery cells. JAL took the 787, one of 13 in its fleet, out of service on Tuesday after workers preparing the plane for flight spotted white smoke outside the aircraft. Warning lights indicated a fault with the battery and its charger, which engineers later found had leaked liquid from one cell. No passengers were aboard, but the incident has reignited concerns over the state-of-the-art 787's safety and reliability, coming a year after two lithium-ion batteries overheated on Dreamliners, prompting regulators to ground the global fleet for more than three months while Boeing revamped the battery, charger and containment system to improve safety. Batteries on the 787 are now housed in a redesigned metal containment box, with insulated separators and special valves to vent hot gases directly outside the plane. INVESTIGATION The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) is heading the search for what went wrong with the power pack in this week's incident. GS Yuasa, Boeing and JAL are also involved, as are investigators from the NTSB in the United States and the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB). Those two agencies have yet to figure out the cause of last year's battery issues. The JTSB has no jurisdiction over Tuesday's battery incident, as it hasn't been logged as an accident, but the agency hopes to gather fresh data to help its investigation into last year's ANA incident, a JTSB official told Reuters. The NTSB said it was sending aircraft systems investigator Mike Bauer to Japan to assist the JCAB. In the past year, the global fleet of 787s has more than doubled to 115 planes operated by 16 carriers. ANA is the world's leading operator with 24 Dreamliners. Goglia said engineers, maintenance people and Boeing employees have told him the latest battery rupture appears so far to be a single event, rather than a problem that is likely to repeat itself. He noted Boeing has not issued a service bulletin to airlines recommending action. "If they find something in the review process that's a concern, they would issue a bulletin, but so far there's no indication of what the root cause of the failure was," he said. "If they don't know what's wrong, they don't know how to fix it." Investigators also are likely to look for a voltage spike or other abnormality in the data that is gathered by sensors in the battery system, said Michel Merluzeau, managing partner at G2 Solutions, an aerospace and defense consulting firm in Kirkland, Washington. He and Goglia both noted the containment system had worked as planned, by stopping the problem from affecting other cells of the battery, and not damaging the plane. "I think it's a vindication of the fix," Merluzeau said. The battery is used to "bring the airplane to life" by powering its systems before the plane's own gas-powered generator is started, according to Boeing. The 787 is built with carbon-fiber composite materials and a powerful electrical system to reduce weight and improve fuel efficiency. (Additional reporting by Yoshiyuki Osada; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

UPS pilots warned of low altitude seven seconds before crash

Fri, Aug 16 21:32 PM EDT image 1 of 5 By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - U.S. government investigators looking into the crash of a UPS cargo plane said on Friday the pilots received a low altitude warning barely seven seconds before the sound of impact, according to data recovered from the cockpit voice recorder. Investigators retrieved data from the cockpit and flight data recorders on Friday that could shed light on Wednesday's fiery crash in Alabama that killed the jet's pilot and co-pilot. "I personally breathed a huge sigh of relief once I learned we had good data," said Robert Sumwalt, a senior official with the National Transportation Safety Board. "We'll know everything that was said in the cockpit." Sumwalt said a preliminary review of the voice and data recorders showed the pilots received the first of two audible warnings before the sound of impact can be heard, indicating the United Parcel Service Inc cargo plane was descending at a hazardous rate. A warning system in the air-traffic computers at Birminghan's airport showed no indications the plane was approaching too low, Sumwalt said. The cockpit voice and flight recorders arrived at the NTSB's headquarters in Washington late on Thursday, hours after they were pulled from a heap of melted plastic and debris at the crash site. Preliminary results from the agency's investigation, which is still in its early stages, have shown no evidence of engine fire, and the pilots did not issue a distress call. The Airbus A300 jet was approaching the runway at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth airport before dawn when it clipped the trees in an adjacent residential area and crashed well short of the runway. An air traffic controller on duty told NTSB investigators he saw a "bright spark flash" that looked like a powerline breaking, Sumwalt said. The controller saw the plane's landing lights "followed by a bright, orange flash ... and then a red glow." The NTSB has sent investigators to Louisville, Kentucky, to study the A300's maintenance records, officials said. UPS identified the crew members who died as 58-year-old Cerea Beal Jr., of Matthews, North Carolina, and Shanda Fanning, 37, of Lynchburg, Tennessee. Beal, the captain, who was at the controls on Wednesday, had been with UPS since 1990, and before that he served more than six years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a helicopter operator. The NTSB said he had about 8,600 hours total flying experience, including more than 3,200 hours in the Airbus A-300. (Additional reporting by Jane Sutton and David Adams in Miami; Writing by Tom Brown and Kevin Gray; Editing by Toni Reinhold, Leslie Gevirtz and Ken Wills)

Two Boeing 787 incidents raise concerns about jet

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Invest in Canadian Real Estate Two Boeing 787 incidents raise concerns about jet Tue, Jan 08 19:12 PM EST 1 of 2 By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co's new 787 Dreamliner suffered its second mishap in two days at the same airport with the same airline, extending a series of problems that have dogged the jet for more than a month and notched up concern about the plane. A fuel leak on Tuesday forced a 787 operated by Japan Airlines to cancel takeoff at Boston's Logan International Airport. On Monday, an electrical fire erupted in a different 787 also operated by Japan Airlines at the Boston airport. No passengers or crew were injured, but both incidents brought out firefighters, and the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday bulked up the team investigating the fire. The incidents were stark reminders of a string of teething problems that have hit the Dreamliner since July, prompting federal regulators to call for engine and fuel line inspections, among other measures. Boeing said it was aware of the issue and was working with its customer. Boeing stock ended down nearly 2.7 percent at $74.13 Tuesday, following a 2 percent decline on Monday. Many Wall Street analysts continued to rate the stock a buy or outperform, mainly because Boeing is delivering jets at a rapid pace and reaping the resulting revenue. Some expressed concern, noting the potential for the combination of a fire and a fuel leak to affect the public perception of Boeing and the Dreamliner. Carter Leake, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets in Virginia, downgraded Boeing to "hold" from "buy" based on the fire alone, noting that fires are potentially lethal and electrical issues are tough to solve. He and others stopped short of calling it a game changer for Boeing. "We're getting to a tipping point where they go from needing to rectify problems to doing major damage control to the image of the company and the plane," said Richard Aboulafia, a defense and aerospace analyst with Teal Group, a consulting firm based in Fairfax, Virginia. "While they delivered a large and unexpected number of 787s last year, it's possible that they should have instead focused on identifying glitches and flaws, rather than pushing ahead with volume production," he said. Aboulafia said there is still no indication that the plane itself is flawed. "It's just a question of how quickly they can get all the onboard technologies right, and whether or not the 787 and Boeing brands will be badly damaged," he said. The fuel leak on Tuesday was noticed at about 12:25 pm ET, after the plane had left the gate in preparation for takeoff on a flight to Tokyo. About 40 gallons spilled, and the jet was towed back to the gate, where passengers disembarked, said Richard Walsh, a spokesman for state transportation authority Massport. The plane departed about four hours behind schedule, according to the flight tracking site Flightaware.com. A Japan Airlines spokeswoman, Carol Anderson, confirmed that the plane later departed. The fire on Monday occurred on a different 787 plane that had just arrived from Tokyo and whose 183 passengers and crew had departed. The NTSB said Tuesday that a battery in the auxiliary power unit aboard the plane jet had suffered "severe fire damage" and that surrounding damage was limited to components and structures within about 20 inches. It said the power unit was operating when the fire was discovered. The agency sent one investigator to the scene on Monday and added two more on Tuesday. The FAA, Boeing, the Japan Transport Safety Board and Japan Airlines are also investigating. The NTSB said Tuesday's fuel leak would not warrant an investigation because there was no accident. Boeing said it is cooperating with the investigations and it would be premature to discuss details since the fire probe is continuing. "However, nothing we've seen in this case indicates a relationship to any previous 787 power system events, which involved power panel faults elsewhere in the aft electrical equipment bay," Boeing said, referring to the area where the fire occurred. "Information about the prior events has been shared with the NTSB and they are aware of the details." Separately, the Wall Street Journal, citing a source, reported that United Airlines found improperly installed wiring in 787 electrical components associated with the auxiliary power unit, the same electrical system that caused the fire aboard a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston on Monday. United spokeswoman Christen David said United inspected its 787s after the Boston fire incident, but she declined to discuss the findings, or to confirm the Journal report. The fuel leak comes after the FAA in December ordered inspections of all 787s after fuel leaks were found on two aircraft operated by airlines. The leaks stemmed from incorrectly assembled fuel line couplings, which could result in loss of power or an engine fire, the FAA said. Mechanical problems are not uncommon when new planes begin service and they often disrupt airline schedules, as they have done with United and Japan Airlines, experts said. "I think we are dealing here with a situation where this aircraft is over-scrutinized for a number of reasons, including the birth difficulties," said Michel Merluzeau, managing partner at G2 Solutions, a boutique defense and aerospace consulting firm in Seattle. The Dreamliner was delivered 3-1/2 years behind schedule. "Don't get me wrong. A battery fire is a very, very serious event. Especially a lithium-ion battery," he added. "And we don't know what the problem is. But the 787s is still a very safe aircraft to fly." Ken Herbert, an analyst with Imperial Capital, said he was concerned that some of the recent incidents could reflect issues with suppliers or product quality. And it might prompt airlines to take extra care with the plane. But he and other analysts cautioned against drawing conclusions until the cause -- and Boeing's response -- are known. "The economics of this aircraft are still very favorable," Herbert said. "My outlook for the long-term success of the 787 certainly hasn't changed materially as a result of what's happened over the last few days." (Reporting by Alwyn Scott. Additional reporting by Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; editing by Andrew Hay) =================================== U.S. launches safety review of 787 after recent issues Fri, Jan 11 18:15 PM EST 1 of 4 By Deborah Charles and Alwyn Scott WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government ordered a wide-ranging review of Boeing's latest passenger jet, the 787 Dreamliner, citing concern over a fire and other recent problems but insisting the plane was still safe to fly. It was unclear how long the review will take or how much it will ultimately cost Boeing, but the company was concerned enough that it sent a top executive to a Washington press conference on the problem. Boeing shares fell 3 percent. The 787 represented a leap in the way planes are designed and built, but the project was plagued by cost overruns and years of delays. Some have suggested Boeing's rush to get planes built after those delays resulted in the recent problems, a charge the company strenuously denies. Either way, regulators said a thorough examination was needed to identify the root cause of the problems, including a fire on a parked 787 on Monday. "There are concerns about recent events involving the Boeing 787. That is why today we are conducting a comprehensive review," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a news conference followed by more than 100 reporters around the world. Those concerns notwithstanding, though, LaHood also maintained the plane was still airworthy. "I believe this plane is safe and I would have absolutely no reservations about boarding one of these planes and taking a flight," he said. While the FAA launched its review, Boeing customer All Nippon Airways had a launch of its own, initiating Dreamliner service between Tokyo and the Silicon Valley hub of San Jose. Passengers preparing to board shook off any suggestion they might be worried. "Whenever there's a new plane there's some breaking in that comes with it. If the pilot's willing to get behind the stick and ride the plane, I have a great deal of confidence in the worthiness of the plane," said Marc Casto, 37, who runs a San Jose-based travel company. Boeing shares fell 2.7 percent to $75 in late trading. Since December 4, when the first of the recent incidents took place, the stock is up 1.5 percent, underperforming a 4.3 percent gain in the S&P 500. Much like the company's customers, who have generally stood behind it, analysts give the company good marks for its early response to the crisis. "Boeing is doing a good job getting in front (as much as a company can) of the FAA situation. My view is that if the FAA deems this as a non-design issue, Boeing will be fine. If this is a design issue, it will be more troublesome because we need to pause the production to fix the design and then proceed," said Morningstar analyst Neal Dihora. CHALLENGE FOR BOEING'S COMMERCIAL CHIEF The review will focus on the 787's advanced electrical systems and cover their design, manufacture and assembly, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The move comes on top of a separate probe by U.S. safety investigators into a battery fire that caused "serious damage" to an empty Japan Airlines 787 jet at Boston airport on Monday. Early findings of that probe are due next week. The 787, the world's first mainly carbon-composite airliner, is Boeing's boldest effort to revolutionize commercial aviation by using new technology to cut fuel costs by 20 percent. Each lightweight jet has a list price of $207 million. Airlines are pleased with the savings, and have so far given the plane their approval, both by ordering more than 800 jets and mostly sticking by it through the current spate of troubles. After roughly 10 incidents on 787s in six weeks, one jet suffered a cracked cockpit window on Friday, while another had an oil leak. "We also stand 100 percent behind the integrity of the 787 and the rigorous process that led to its successful certification and entry into service," Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement on Friday. The review is a significant test for the recently appointed chief executive of Boeing's commercial airplanes division, Ray Conner, who attended Friday's news conference. "The redundancies that we have put into this machine are phenomenal and the airplane performed perfectly in that respect. Now, we'd like to make sure that none of these happen again, and that's what we're going to try to do," Conner said. Those complex systems that Conner referred to are among the advantages of the 787, but also complicate finding and solving problems, according to the director of MIT's Aeronautical Systems Laboratory. "You now have the interdependencies that you didn't have before. The systems are much better when they work but they're harder to guarantee that they will work all the time and it's harder to predict what will happen when something fails," said R. John Hansman in an interview. BOEING CONFIDENCE As Boeing's 787 comes under review, the company is involved in difficult labor contract negotiations with its engineering union, which represents the workers who would be called upon to solve any problems with the Dreamliner. On Friday, Boeing made a revised offer that it said would increase the pool of money available for raises. Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), declined to comment on the FAA review. He said Boeing's latest offer still included drastic cuts from the contract that expired in November. The media storm about the 787 glitches echoes global publicity a year ago over wing cracks on the A380 superjumbo, built by Boeing's European rival Airbus. The A380 has also been deemed safe to fly and few airlines have reported a dip in bookings, but the problems are expected to end up costing Airbus up to 500 million euros in repairs. The 787 Dreamliner made its first commercial flight in late 2011 after a series of production delays put deliveries more than three years behind schedule. By the end of last year, Boeing had sold 848 Dreamliners. It now has 50 in service. (Reporting by Kentaro Sugiyama, James Topham, Mari Saito, Mayumi Negishi and Maki Shiraki in TOKYO, Anurag Kotoky in NEW DELHI, Tim Hepher in PARIS, Deborah Charles and Alina Selyukh in WASHINGTON, Ernest Scheyder and Alwyn Scott in NEW YORK, Karen Jacobs in ATLANTA, Malathi Nayak in SAN JOSE and Aman Shah in Bangalore; Writing by Ian Geoghegan, Tim Hepher and Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Alex Richardson, Nick Zieminski, David Gregorio, Gary Hill) ========================= JAL's grounded Boeing Dreamliner leaks fuel in tests Sun, Jan 13 15:05 PM EST By James Topham and Alwyn Scott TOKYO/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Japan Airlines Co (JAL) said on Sunday that a Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner jet undergoing checks in Tokyo following a fuel leak at Boston airport last week had leaked fuel during tests earlier in the day. An open valve on the aircraft caused fuel to leak from a nozzle on the left wing used to remove fuel, a company spokeswoman said. The jet is out of service after spilling about 40 gallons (roughly 150 liters) of fuel onto the airport taxiway in Boston due to a separate valve-related problem. In Boston, a different valve on the plane opened, causing fuel to flow from the center tank to the left main tank. When that tank filled up, it overflowed into a surge tank and out through a vent. The spill happened as the plane was taxiing for takeoff on a flight to Tokyo on January 8. It made the flight about four hours later. The causes of both incidents are unknown, the JAL spokeswoman added. There is no timetable for the plane to return to service. "We are aware of the event and are working with our customer," Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said of the leak in Tokyo. On Friday, the U.S. government ordered a wide-ranging review of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, citing concern over a battery that caught fire on January 7, also on a JAL plane in Boston, and other problems. The government and Boeing insisted the passenger jet remained safe to fly. The 787 represents the boldest bet Boeing has made on a new plane in more than a decade, and because the aircraft required billions to develop, much of the company's financial performance is riding on its success. Boeing is trying to double production to 10 jets a month this year to cash in on nearly 800 orders. The eight airlines that operate the 50 jets delivered so far have expressed support for it, saying the mishaps are teething problems common with most new airplanes, and the 787's fuel savings make it an important addition to their fleets. JAL and local rival All Nippon Airways Co fly 24 Dreamliners. The review follows a slew of incidents that have focused intense scrutiny on the new plane. While many of the issues that have dogged the 787 are typically considered routine, their occurrence in quick succession on an aircraft that incorporates major new technology and has not seen wide use yet has sparked concerns about safety. In December, a 787 operated by United Airlines and bound from Houston to Newark, New Jersey, was forced to land in New Orleans after a warning light in the cockpit indicated a generator had failed. Boeing later said a faulty circuit board produced in Mexico and supplied by UTC Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies, had produced a false reading in the cockpit. A UTC Aerospace spokesman declined to comment. Also in December, two other 787s suffered problems with electrical panels. The fire on January 7 started when a lithium-ion battery used in an auxiliary power system ignited while the plane was parked at the gate. It burned for about 40 minutes before firefighters put the flames out, and smoke entered the cabin. Passengers and crew had already left the aircraft. On December 5, U.S. regulators said there was a manufacturing fault in 787 fuel lines and advised operators to make extra inspections to guard against engine failures. Last week, the plane had seven reported incidents, ranging from the fire to a cracked cockpit window. (Reporting by James Topham in Tokyo and Alwyn Scott in Seattle; Editing by Jeremy Laurence, Catherine Evans and Dale Hudson) ===================== FLASH: Smoke in ANA's Boeing 787 appeared in cockpit; all 129 passengers, 8 crew members were evacuated safely - Osaka airport spokesman Dreamliner makes emergency landing in Japan: ANA (AFP) – 5 minutes ago TOKYO — A Boeing Dreamliner operated by All Nippon Airways made an emergency landing in the west of Japan on Wednesday, the airline said, with media reports saying smoke had been seen inside the aircraft. "It made an emergency landing at Takamatsu because there was an error message during the flight," from Ube in the far west, bound for Tokyo, ANA spokeswoman Naoko Yamamoto said. Television pictures showed emergency chutes deployed from the plane at the airport in Takamatsu, on Japan's fourth largest island of Shikoku. Jiji Press reported smoke had been seen inside the cockpit. If confirmed, it would constitute yet another blow to the Dreamliner's reputation after more than a week of bad news. ANA said 129 passengers and eight crew on board, with Jiji and broadcast NHK saying none was injured. "It is true that the aircraft has recently seen a series of troubles," said the ANA spokesman. "But we cannot say if this has something in common with previous problems". All Nippon Airways grounds all Dreamliners in fleet after emergency landing Get short URL Link copied to clipboardemail story to a friend print version Published: 16 January, 2013, 05:44 All Nippon Airways grounds all Dreamliners in fleet after emergency landing All Nippon Airways has grounded all 17 Boeing 787 planes in its fleet for emergency inspections after a malfunction on board forced one of the Dreamliners to make an emergency landing at Takamatsu Airport in the west of Japan. ­DETAILS TO FOLLOW ============= India reviewing Dreamliner safety, no plans to ground aircraft: regulator inShare.0Share thisEmailPrintRelated NewsJapanese airlines ground Boeing 787s after emergency landing 11:16pm EST Japan to probe fuel leaks on Boeing Dreamliner Mon, Jan 14 2013 JAL's grounded Boeing Dreamliner leaks fuel in tests Sun, Jan 13 2013 U.S. launches safety review of 787 after recent issues Sat, Jan 12 2013 U.S. to review Boeing 787 safety issues Fri, Jan 11 2013Analysis & OpinionA working legislature, post informant life and Wal-Mart’s guns Rail fares raised, diesel proposal: bold moves, smart timing Related TopicsWorld » Aerospace & Defense » NEW DELHI | Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:10pm EST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is reviewing the safety situation of Boeing Co Dreamliners and will also talk to component makers of the U.S. aircraft but there are no plans to ground the planes, the aviation regulator said on Wednesday. "We are not having any problem with our Dreamliners. The problems we had earlier were fixed," Arun Mishra, Director General of Civil Aviation, told Reuters. State-owned Air India owns 6 Dreamliners. "We are reviewing the situation now ... we will have to talk to component companies," Mishra said. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky; Writing by Ranjit Gangadharan; Editing by Michael Urquhart) =============== Japanese airlines ground Boeing 787s after emergency landing Wed, Jan 16 01:52 AM EST 1 of 4 By Mayumi Negishi and Tim Kelly TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s on Wednesday after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing, heightening safety concerns over a plane many see as the future of commercial aviation. All Nippon Airways Co said it was grounding all 17 of its 787s and Japan Airlines Co said it suspended all 787 flights scheduled for Wednesday. ANA said its planes could be back in the air as soon as Thursday once checks were completed. The two carriers operate around half of the 50 Dreamliners delivered by Boeing to date. Wednesday's incident follows a series of mishaps for the new Dreamliner. The sophisticated plane, the world's first mainly carbon-composite airliner, has suffered fuel leaks, a battery fire, wiring problem, brake computer glitch and cracked cockpit window in recent days. "I think you're nearing the tipping point where they need to regard this as a serious crisis," said Richard Aboulafia, a senior analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. "This is going to change people's perception of the aircraft if they don't act quickly." The 787 represented a leap in the way planes are designed and built, but the project was plagued by cost overruns and years of delays. Some have suggested Boeing's rush to get planes built after those delays resulted in the recent problems, a charge the company strenuously denies. Both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said they were monitoring the latest Dreamliner incident as part of a comprehensive review of the aircraft announced late last week. ALARM TRIGGERED ANA flight 692 left Yamaguchi Airport in western Japan shortly after 8 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Tuesday) bound for Haneda Airport near Tokyo, a 65-minute flight. About 18 minutes into the flight, at 30,000 feet, the plane began a descent. It descended to 20,000 feet in about four minutes and made an emergency landing 16 minutes later, according to flight-tracking website Flightaware.com. A spokesman for Osaka airport authority said the plane landed in Takamatsu at 8:45 a.m. All 129 passengers and eight crew evacuated safely via the plane's inflatable chutes. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said 5 people were slightly injured. At a news conference - where ANA's vice-president Osamu Shinobe bowed deeply in apology - the carrier said instruments on the flight indicated a battery error, triggering emergency warnings to the pilots. It said the battery in the forward cargo hold was the same type as one involved in a fire on another Dreamliner at a U.S. airport last week. "There was a battery alert in the cockpit and there was an odd smell detected in the cockpit and cabin, and (the pilot) decided to make an emergency landing," Shinobe said. Marc Birtel, a Boeing spokesman, told Reuters: "We've seen the reports, we're aware of the events and are working with our customer." The Teal Group's Aboulafi said regulators could ground all 50 of the 787 planes now in service, while airlines may make the decision themselves. "They may want to protect their own brand images," he said. UNDER REVIEW Australia's Qantas Airways said its order for 15 Dreamliners remained on track, and its Jetstar subsidiary was due to take delivery of the first of the aircraft in the second half of this year. Qantas declined to comment further on the issues that have plagued the new lightweight, fuel-efficient aircraft. India's aviation regulator said it was reviewing the Dreamliner's safety and would talk to parts makers, but had no plans to ground the planes. State-owned Air India has six of the aircraft in service and more on order. "We are not having any problem with our Dreamliners. The problems we had earlier were fixed," Arun Mishra, Director General of Civil Aviation, told Reuters. "We are reviewing the situation now." United Airlines, the only U.S. carrier currently flying the 787, said it was not taking any immediate action in response to the latest incident. "We are looking at what is happening with ANA and we will have more information tomorrow," a spokeswoman said. Shares of Dreamliner suppliers in Japan came under pressure. GS Yuasa Corp - which makes the plane's batteries - fell 4.5 percent, as did Toray Industries Inc, which supplies carbon fibre used in the plane's composites. Fuji Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and IHI slid 2.5-3 percent on a benchmark Nikkei that was 2 percent lower. ANA shares slipped 1 percent. PUBLIC CONFIDENCE Japan's transport minister on Tuesday acknowledged that passenger confidence in the Dreamliner was at stake, as both Japan and the United States have opened broad and open-ended investigations into the plane after the recent incidents. The 787 is Boeing's first new jet in more than a decade, and the company's financial fortunes are largely tied to its success. The plane offers airlines unprecedented fuel economy, but the huge investment to develop it coupled with years of delay in delivery has caused headaches for customers, hurt Boeing financially and created a delivery bottleneck. Boeing has said it will at least break even on the cost of building the 1,100 new 787s it expects to deliver over the next decade. Some analysts, however, say Boeing may never make money from the plane, given its enormous development cost. Any additional cost from fixing problems discovered by the string of recent incidents would affect those forecasts, and could hit Boeing's bottom line more quickly if it has to stop delivering planes, analysts said. To date it has sold close to 850 of the planes to airlines around the world. (Addtional reporting by Olivier Fabre, Kentaro Sugiyama, Mari Saito, Deborah Charles and Alwyn Scott; Writing by Ian Geoghegan; Editing by Paul Tait and Alex Richardson) ========================= Boeing Dreamliners grounded worldwide on battery checks Thu, Jan 17 14:13 PM EST 1 of 7 By James Topham and Alwyn Scott TOKYO/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Airlines scrambled on Thursday to rearrange flights as regulators around the world joined the United States in grounding Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner passenger jets while battery-related problems are investigated. Poland's state-controlled LOT Airlines said it would seek compensation from Boeing for grounding its two planes. It expects delivery of three more Dreamliners by the end of March, but would only take them if the technical issues have been resolved, deputy chief Tomasz Balcerzak told a news conference. The lightweight, mainly carbon-composite aircraft has been plagued by mishaps, raising concerns over its use of lithium-ion batteries. An All Nippon Airways Co Ltd domestic flight made an emergency landing on Wednesday after warning lights indicated a battery problem. Boeing shares were up about 0.6 percent at $74.78 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trading. For the first few weeks of the recent spate of incidents, the stock held up relatively well compared with the broader market, but has weakened recently as analysts grew wary of the costs Boeing might face. "While it is entirely possible that the current battery issue is resolved in short order, it is also equally possible that the 787s current certification could be called into question," BB&T Capital Markets analyst Carter Leake wrote Thursday, cutting his rating on the stock to "underweight." The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily grounded Boeing's newest commercial airliner on Wednesday, saying carriers would have to demonstrate the batteries were safe before the planes could resume flying. It gave no details on when that might happen. It is the first such action since the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 had its airworthiness certificate suspended following a deadly crash in Chicago in 1979, analysts said. Boeing has sold about 850 of its new aircraft, with 50 delivered to date. Around half of those have been in operation in Japan, but airlines in India, South America, Poland, Qatar and Ethiopia, as well as United Airlines in the United States, are also flying the 787, which has a list price of $207 million. By Boeing's accounting, the 787 program will not be considered profitable until the company has delivered 1,100 Dreamliners. As it stands, the plane accounts for a small portion of Boeing's revenue, given that it produces five of them a month versus 35 for the 737 model. SCHEDULE GAPS With most of that Dreamliner fleet now effectively out of action as engineers and regulators make checks, primarily of the plane's batteries and complex electronics systems, airlines are wrestling with gaps in their scheduling. Japan Airlines Co Ltd said it canceled eight Dreamliner flights between Tokyo and San Diego until January 25, affecting some 1,290 passengers, and would switch aircraft for another 70 flights scheduled to fly the 787. Air India said it would use other planes on scheduled Dreamliner flights. Qatar Airways, whose Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker had been one of the most outspoken critics of delays and technical problems with the 787, said his airline would ground its fleet of five aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines said its fleet of four Dreamliners had not experienced the same problems as other carriers, but that it would ground the planes nonetheless. Keeping the 787s on the ground could cost ANA alone more than $1.1 million a day, Mizuho Securities calculated, noting the Dreamliner was key to the airline's growth strategy. Regulators in Japan and India said it was unclear when the Dreamliner could be back in the air. A spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency said the region would follow the FAA's grounding order. Boeing said in a statement it was confident the 787 was safe and it stood by the plane's integrity.

Passengers leaving United's flight 1426 in Houston, which took off from Los Angeles moments before the FAA announcement, reported an incident-free trip. "I fly over 100,000 miles a year," said Brett Boudreaux, a salesman from Lake Charles, Louisiana. "That was one of the most relaxing flights I've ever had. I hope they sort it out. It's a hell of a plane."

'WORST THING' Scott Hamilton, an analyst at Leeham Co, an aerospace consulting firm in Seattle, said having a plane grounded "is about the worst thing that can happen to an airplane program." "If this goes beyond just a bad design of a battery and you have to redesign some systems leading to the battery and look at why didn't safeguards on this thing work, you get a ripple effect. They'll have more airplanes going out the door and they can't deliver them. So you build up inventory. Every day ... is an added day of delivery delays." Six new 787s, painted and apparently ready for delivery, were parked on the apron at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, adjacent to Boeing's 787 plant. Four more Dreamliners occupied the final assembly spots inside the factory. American Airlines, which just this week placed firm orders for 42 Dreamliners, pending U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval, said it was sticking to its plans. "We are in constant dialogue with Boeing. We believe the 787 is a great aircraft," Virasb Vahidi, chief commercial officer for American, said in an interview. SMOKE AND SOOT The Japan Transport Safety Board said the battery on the ANA flight that made the emergency landing was blackened, carbonized on the inside and weighed 5 kg less than normal, the Kyodo news agency reported. Representatives from the FAA, Boeing and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board were due in Japan on Friday to inspect the plane. The use of new battery technology is among the cost-saving features of the 787, which Boeing says burns 20 percent less fuel than rival jetliners using older technology. The 787 represents a leap in aircraft design, but the project has been plagued by cost overruns and years of delays. Based on how regulators usually handle air safety, experts say U.S. authorities and Boeing will discuss the criteria for inspections on the Dreamliner. They would also set what fixes, if any, are needed and a timetable for those. Analysts say it is unclear how long that could take or how much it could cost, but some question whether Boeing can stick to its target of doubling 787 output to 10 a month by the end of this year. "It guarantees some throttling back in production. It's clear one of the problems was building planes before fully understanding the rhythm of production," Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia said. But aircraft industry sources say there was no immediate threat of airlines cancelling orders. "You aren't going to see cancellations," Leeham's Hamilton said, noting airlines have no alternative because rival models from Airbus are sold out and have years-long waiting lists. Airbus reported a 43 percent drop in orders for its planes last year, surrendering its crown as the world's largest aircraft maker to Boeing. The European manufacturer said it was confident of achieving the maiden flight of its A350 carbon-composite airliner by mid-year. The new plane will also use lithium-ion batteries, made by France's Saft Groupe SA. (Additional reporting by William Rigby, Tim Hepher, Andrea Shala-Esa, Erwin Seba, Karen Jacobs, Mari Saito, Anurag Kotoky, Karolina Slowikowska, Adrian Krajewski and Reuters bureaux; Writing by Ian Geoghegan and Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Alex Richardson, Maureen Bavdek and Andre Grenon) ====================== Boeing may do 787 certification flight on Friday: source Thu, Apr 04 18:23 PM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co may carry out a certification test flight of its grounded 787 Dreamliner with a revamped battery system on Friday, a key step toward returning the state-of-the-art aircraft to flight, a U.S. government official said on Thursday. The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the certification test could be carried out on Friday if all remaining ground-based tests were completed on Thursday. "They're not quite there yet," said the official, adding that it might not be clear until early Friday if the certification flight could take place. Boeing declined to confirm the timing of the flight. "As a matter of long-standing policy Boeing does not provide advance notice of flight test activities until we have filed flight test plans," Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel told Reuters when asked about a possible test flight on Friday. Boeing typically files a flight plan a few hours before the plane takes off. All 50 787s in service worldwide were grounded in January after the airplane's lithium-ion batteries overheated on two separate aircraft, one on the ground in Boston and a second during a flight in Japan. The certification flight is part of a series of tests to show whether measures Boeing has devised to fix the battery problems work as intended. A preparation flight on March 25 "went according to plan," Boeing said. It's still unknown what caused the two batteries to overheat, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. But Boeing came up with measures it says make the battery safe. It encased the battery in a steel box, changed the circuitry of the battery charger and added a titanium venting tube to expel heat and fumes outside the plane. Once Boeing completes its testing, the Federal Aviation Administration will review the test data and decide whether to certify the fix and return the plane to service. Airlines have been barred from using the plane since it was grounded in January, and Boeing has been barred from delivering 787s, though it continues to build the plane. (Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa and Alwyn Scott; Editing by Gary Hill, Bernard Orr)