B787 Dagens

ANA, United Find More Damaged ELTs in 787s

AIN AIR TRANSPORT PERSPECTIVE » JULY 29, 2013

by  GREGORY POLEK

All Nippon Airways found damage to what it describes as a battery wire in an ELT installed in one of its 20 Boeing 787s. (Photo: Boeing)

July 29, 2013, 1:00 PM

All Nippon Airways and United Airlines have found minor wiring damage on a total of three Honeywell-made emergency locator transmitters for Boeing 787s and have returned them to their manufacturer for inspection, the airlines revealed last week. The discoveries arose during inspections of the systems recommended by theUK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch and mandated on Thursday by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in reaction to a July 12 fire aboard an Ethiopian Airlines 787parked at London Heathrow Airport.

After removing the ELTs from its eight domestically operated 787s, ANA technicians found what the airline describes as a damaged battery wire on one of them. The airline found similar damage in spare ELTs not yet installed on airplanes. Meanwhile, ANAremoved the ELTs from another 12 Dreamliners it operates on international routes and, after finding no damage, reinstalled them.

Although the airline reported its findings to Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau, authorities haven’t yet determined whether the damage to ANA’s ELTs bore any relation to that found in the Ethiopian Airlines case.

United, meanwhile, found a single damaged wire associated with an ELT on one of its six 787s.

Last Thursday the FAA issued an airworthiness directive (AD) calling for either the removal or inspection of the ELTs. The directive, which covers the 68 Boeing 787-8s now in service, noted that continued investigation into the event could result in further rulemaking and expand to other ELTs on various other aircraft.

The AAIB found that most of the fire damage to the Ethiopian 787 occurred at or near location of the system and its associated wiring, mounted internally on structure near the skin of the rear fuselage section. The AAIB further noted that no other systems in the area contain enough stored energy to start a fire.