B787 Ethiopian - Antakelig ikke relatert til APU batterier

Images of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 which was damaged by fire at London’s Heathrow airport on July 12, show that the blaze was probably not connected with the lithium-ion battery problems which grounded the aircraft earlier this year.

That’s the good news for Boeing and other 787 operators. The bad news for Ethiopian in this case is that the aircraft involved, ET-AOP (L/N44), which was the first 787 to restart operations in mid-April following the fleet-wide grounding, could be down for a very long time. Although it is too early to tell from these images if the airframe could be considered a write-off, the damage looks to represent – at the very least – a huge AOG challenge.

The fire, understood to have broken out shortly before 5pm, occurred while the aircraft was parked on a remote stand in the western part of the airport prior to the scheduled 9 pm departure of the airline’s ET701 service to Addis Ababa. Images of the incident indicate the blaze occurred in the aft fuselage close to the rear galley and crew rest area by doors L3 and R3. Evidence of charring is visible in the crown section at the base of the fin close to the structural junction of the aft fuselage Section 47 with the mid-fuselage section.

Asiana Jet Crash Victim Was Struck by Firetruck

By Kathleen Chaykowski - Jul 12, 2013 8:34 PM GMT+0200

One of the two 16-year-old Chinese girls who died after the Asiana Airlines Inc. (020560) plane crashed in San Francisco was hit by a firetruck attending the scene, police confirmed.

The victim was covered in fire-retardant foam, lying prostrate on the ground near the fuselage, Gordon Shyy, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, said in a telephone interview today.

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A burned Boeing Co. 777, operated by Asiana Airlines Inc., sits on the runway after it crashed landed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, 2013. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

“We do not know that the firetruck was the actual cause of death,” Shyy said. Shyy also said he didn’t know which victim was struck