U.S. safety regulators are nowhere near finishing an investigation into a battery fire on the Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner, a top official said on Thursday, raising the prospect of a prolonged grounding for the aircraft.
Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, made clear that investigators have found a series of “symptoms” in the battery damaged in a January 7 fire in Boston, but not the underlying cause of the problem. She also said the agency would be looking at the design of the battery compartment area of the plane and whether the certification standards had been strong enough.
For those of us who fly a lot, the thought that a new airplane design may not have been tested stringently and rushed to market is beyond unnerving. This is the one area where you really don’t want to find out that there was a bureaucratic hiccup somewhere along the way.
The money line in this article is the cold language of a bureaucrat referring to something that is terror inducing to an air traveler:
We do not expect to see fire events on board aircraft.
Good to know.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member