Mitsubishi Regional Jeg med hikke - Curt Lewis

Mitsubishi Regional Jet test plane aborts flight to Washington state for a second day

A model of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) passenger aircraft is displayed in front of subassembly components of the forward fuselage section and fuselage section for the company's aircraft during a media preview at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works Tobishima Plant in Tobishima Village, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Saturday, Sept. (MRJ) passenger aircraft is displayed in front of subassembly components of the forward fuselage section and fuselage section for the company's aircraft during a media preview at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works Tobishima Plant in Tobishima Village, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg)



The first Mitsubishi Regional Jet headed to Washington's Moses Lake for fligh testing had to abort its flight from Japan for a second straight day due to problems with an air-conditioning system.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' regional jet aircraft aborted a test flight from Japan to Washington state for the second straight day due to problems with an air-conditioning system.

The aircraft, Japan's first passenger plane developed at home in more than a half century, landed back in Nagoya at 3:13 p.m. after taking off from the airport just before 1 p.m, according to company spokesman Kenichi Takemori.

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), which can seat as many as 92 people, is the first of four that the firm plans to fly to U.S. for testing as the company works toward getting certification in the world's largest economy.

The four MRJ test planes are slated for extended flight testing at Moses Lake, taking advantage of both the unconstricted air space and the local engineering talent.

While the plane Sunday made its way to the airspace of the northerly Japanese island of Hokkaido, it returned to Nagoya airport for possible repairs, according to Takemori.

The aircraft made its first flight in November last year and has been undergoing tests since. Yesterday's flight was also aborted because of an air-conditioning system problem.

Once the MRJ fleet arrives in Washington state, Seattle-based engineering company AeroTEC will provide technical support and aircraft-certification services for Mitsubishi.

Between Moses Lake and AeroTEC's engineering and certification-support group in Seattle, Mitsubishi will employ about 400 people for several years during development and testing of the MRJ family, including about 250 pilots and engineers sent from Japan.