So, Boeing knew.
Even before two battery failures led to the grounding of all Boeing 787 jets this month, the lithium-ion batteries used on the aircraft had experienced multiple problems that raised questions about their reliability.
Officials at All Nippon Airways, the jets’ biggest operator, said in an interview on Tuesday that it replaced 10 of the batteries in the months before fire in one plane and smoke in another led regulators around the world to ground the jets.
The airline said it told Boeing of the replacements as they occurred but was not required to report them to safety regulators because they were not considered a safety issue and no flights were canceled or delayed.
The only real question here seems to be why the FAA saw fit to ground the planes over something that the manufacturer claims wasn’t a safety issue. Something in the approval process is deeply flawed and air travel safety is no place for “He said/She said” spats about procedure.
Second look at Amtrak, anyone?
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