ALL Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) have grounded their entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, after an ANA Dreamliner flight made an emergency landing at Takamatsu Airport in Kagawa Prefecture yesterday morning.
Battery alarm and smoke were the reasons prompting the emergency landing, according to ANA, while investigations to determine the exact cause are ongoing. All 137 passengers and crew members were safely evacuated from the plane using the emergency slide.
The January 16 incident is the latest in a series of technical problems affecting Boeing’s new flagship airliner in the past month, including a cracked cockpit window, an electric fire and fuel leaks.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also ordered the immediate temporary suspension of all Dreamliner flights in the US until aircraft battery systems are confirmed to be safe. United Airlines, currently the only Dreamliner operator in the US with six 787s, has announced it would comply with FAA’s order.
Other airlines flying the Dreamliner include Qatar Airways, Air India, Ethiopian Airlines, Chile’s LAN Airlines and Poland’s LOT.
