Boeing 787 Dreamliner Is Troubled by Questions About Safety

[marmar]

[font size="1"]Charles Krupa/Associated Press
A 787 had to be towed back to the gate Tuesday in Boston because of a fuel leak. On Monday, a parked 787 caught on fire.[/font]


(NYT) NEW YORK — For Boeing, much rides on the success of its newest and most sophisticated jet, the 787 Dreamliner. But a spate of mishaps is reviving concerns about the plane’s reliability and safety.

The plane had a new problem Wednesday, when the Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways canceled a domestic flight after a computer on board erroneously showed problems with the aircraft’s brakes. A spokeswoman for the airline, Megumi Tezuka, said the computer glitch was similar to one that appeared when the carrier first started flying the Dreamliners in 2011.

The flight, NH698, had been due to depart from Yamaguchi Ube airport in southern Japan for Tokyo’s Haneda airport at 4:50 p.m. local time. The flight’s 98 passengers were transferred to a later flight.

On Tuesday, a fuel leak forced a 787 to return to its gate minutes before taking off from Boston. On Monday, an electrical fire had broken out on another plane. Both of those incidents affected planes operated by Japan Airlines at Logan International Airport in Boston. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/business/global/safety-of-boeing-787-dreamliner-called-into-question.html?hp&_r=0

[longship]

1. What a nightmare for Boeing!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's a brilliant airplane - if they can get the damn thing to work.

[jsr]

3. It's probably related to outsourcing

http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-fi-hiltzik-20110215,0,1160131.column

February 15, 2011
787 Dreamliner teaches Boeing costly lesson on outsourcing
The airliner is billions of dollars over budget and about three years late. Much of the blame belongs to the company's farming out work to suppliers around the nation and in foreign countries.
Michael Hiltzik

The biggest mistake people make when talking about the outsourcing of U.S. jobs by U.S. companies is to treat it as a moral issue.

Sure, it's immoral to abandon your loyal American workers in search of cheap labor overseas. But the real problem with outsourcing, if you don't think it through, is that it can wreck your business and cost you a bundle.

Case in point: Boeing Co. and its 787 Dreamliner.