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Inquiry starts into Heathrow Dreamliner fire


Runways at London's Heathrow airport have reopened after a fire on a parked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet.

Air accident investigators on Saturday confirmed they had begun an inquiry into a fire on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Heathrow airport but declined to speculate on what caused the incident.

The internal fire on the Dreamliner, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, has raised fresh questions about the safety of Boeing's flagship long-haul passenger jet - which was temporarily grounded by regulators in January after batteries on two 787s burnt.
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The Dreamliner is Boeing's newest and most sophisticated jet - involving a step change in electrical technology to reduce fuel consumption - and this latest fire will put the jet and its US manufacturer under intense regulatory scrutiny once again. The January grounding was only lifted in April after Boeing made significant modifications to the 787 lithium-ion battery system.

The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, which probes aircraft accidents, said on Saturday: "The [Ethiopian Airlines'] aircraft has now been moved to a secure hanger at Heathrow and the investigation has begun."

The fire broke out on the Ethiopian Airlines' Dreamliner on Friday afternoon while it was parked at a stand in the middle of the airport, with no passengers on board.
The AAIB, which has a team of eight investigators at Heathrow, London's main airport, declined to comment further, including on the possible cause of the fire.
The European Aviation Safety Agency, which supervises EU aviation, said it was too early to say whether this latest Dreamliner incident would lead to another grounding of the aircraft.

The AAIB is being assisted by two US watchdogs - the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA took the regulatory lead in ordering the global grounding of the Dreamliner in January.
Boeing, which has dispatched a team to Heathrow from Seattle, home of its commercial aircraft division, is also involved in the AAIB inquiry, together with Ethiopian Airlines.

Boeing declined to comment on Saturday beyond its Friday statement saying it was "working to fully understand" the nature of the incident. The company's shares fell sharply on Friday, closing down 4.7 per cent at $101.87.

Ethiopian Airlines could not be immediately reached on Saturday, but said on Friday the fire was related to a problem with the Dreamliner's air conditioning system.
Analysts said the worst-case scenario for Boeing would be if this latest Dreamliner fire was connected to its battery system.

Television pictures of the aircraft showed fire damage to the top of the jet fuselage, close to its tail.

One person familiar with the situation said this damage could be consistent with a fire in the galley at the rear of the aircraft, or burning involving the air conditioning system, which has components in the roof of the jet.

Douglas Harned, analyst at Bernstein, said the apparent location of the fire at the top of the aircraft meant it should be far away from the Dreamliner's two lithium-ion batteries.

The battery for the starter generator on the Dreamliner is towards the front of the jet in the lower part of the aircraft. The battery for the auxiliary power unit is in the midsection of the jet, also in the lower part of the aircraft.

Carter Copeland, analyst at Barclays, said: "We think another battery-related incident would represent the worst-case scenario for [Boeing] shares as it might cause investors to revisit financial consequences associated with another grounding of the aircraft, potential production stoppages, and any sort of redesign.
"This is not something that appears to be highly likely based on the information we have so far, but again it's still early."

Meanwhile, Heathrow was trying to resume normal operations after closing its two runways for more than one hour on Friday because of the fire.
Airport authorities said 88 flights were cancelled on Friday - about 7 per cent of the total. On Saturday, 44 flights are due to be cancelled.