B787 - Ligger an til gunfight mellom NTSB og FAA

Crew-Only 787 Flight Is Approved by F.A.A.


Federal regulators said on Wednesday that they had approved one flight of a Boeing 787, with a flight crew but no passengers, as the company's engineers study possible changes to the plane's electrical systems that could reduce the risk of another battery fire.

The flight would be the first for a 787 since aviation authorities grounded the innovative aircraft last month after two incidents with its lithium-ion batteries. The Federal Aviation Administration said it would let Boeing return one 787 from a painting plant in Fort Worth to its plant near Seattle. It has not yet approved flights to conduct tests on the batteries.

The flight, scheduled for Thursday, will come as the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to raise questions about how the F.A.A. certified the 787's battery before it began flying passengers in 2011. The safety board, which has been performing tests of its own as part of its investigation into the battery problems, is seeking to find out why weaknesses with the batteries were not picked up in Boeing's original testing program.

The safety board is looking at whether the F.A.A. fully understood any potential issues with the volatile new batteries before it approved their use under special conditions.