Condor flight DE-1762 had to return and make an emergency landing in Dusseldorf, Germany, on May 24th.
The Boeing 737-400 plane took off for Kavala, Greece, but had to turn back due to a cracked windshield.
The plane landed back safely. All one hundred and fifty-five people aboard remained unharmed.
Indonesian Lion Air is planning to buy 230 planes from Boeing Co. $21.7 billion for the fleet will be paid in loans from U.S. Export-Import Bank over 12 years though bank financing. The airline will be adding flights to cities in China, South Korea and Taiwan. Lion Air, founded in 2000, currently flies Boeing 737s and MD-90s in 226 flights daily to more than 36 cities including Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ho Chi Minh City.
The 737 MAX is a fuel efficient upgrade competitive with Airbus SAS’s A320neo.
United Airlines Flight 2207 had to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport, California, on June 14.
The plane, carrying the Los Angeles Dodgers, was heading from San Diego International Airport to Dallas, Texas, when it experienced a mechanical issue and had to be diverted to LAX.
The plane landed uneventfully. All 176 people aboard remained unharmed.
The airline arranged a replacement plane for the team members.
Delta Airlines flight DL-2651 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on December 29th.
The Boeing 737-800 plane heading from Seattle, Washington, to Anchorage, Alaska, was diverted after the crew needed to shut down one of the engines.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
OpenSkies flight EC-8001 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Shannon airport, Ireland, on August 19th.
The Boeing 757-200 plane heading from Paris Orly Airport, France, to Newark, New Jersey, was diverted due to a gear well fire indication.
The plane landed safely. All 89 passengers and 5 crew members remained safe.
Lufthansa flight LH-428 made an emergency landing in Munich, Germany, on April 22nd.
The plane took off for Charlotte, North Carolina, but had to turn back after an electrical odor was noticed in the cabin.
The plane landed safely. All passengers and crew members remained safe.
I’m not an expert but there are aspects to this Lithium Ion battery story which concern me. I completely understand why these planes are grounded as this battery situation is examined, and applaud that solutions are being considered even as I write this. I cannot help but wonder what the actual time-frame will be. When I start wondering, I start asking —and quoting—the experts available to me and my company.
The FAA maintains a database of Service Difficulty Reports (SDR’s) for US Registered airlines. There’s a long ignominious history recorded of fire and smoke events previously examined by the FAA in the unique category that the fires are hidden, i.e. in locations inaccessible or unknown to crew: mundane items the public never heard of–such as the built-in Halon 1301 trash receptacle extinguishers that failed to extinguish trash fires– were found and fixed or replaced. Battery ground cables have been known to arc (Northwest Airlines DC-10, March 1988), insulation blankets to burn (April of 1988, a Continental 737), overheated fluorescent light ballasts smoked (115 incidents way back in 1991).
Here’s an example of why I am concerned:
At least twenty-nine fires have been identified as being ignited by electrical short circuits in/from flammable acoustic blankets. One of these flammable circuit types that was identified back in a 1991 report is permitted in Boeing products until 2016.
When the solution to the battery problem is determined, what time frame will the Airworthiness Directives require? Will compliance be to exchange, replace or modify the battery system or to put it off till later? ADs are issued with overly generous compliance times in years.
Will a temporary measure be taken along with a compliance date set years from now?
Regardless of whether the bottom-line business of aviation is wrestling with the expense of safety, a dicey potential fire starter component is a problem that should be addressed.
If the Dreamliner is going to be in service for the next 40 years, an issue causing a component to cause a fire should not be covered with 40 years of bandaids. It should be fixed now.
