We no longer have to conjecture about the Japan Airlines 787 battery fire in Boston because the National Transportation Safety Board has released an interim factual report with nearly 500 pages of related documentation.
A live webcast forum is scheduled for April in Washington to investigate the design, technology and certification lithium-ion batteries.
Attached is the report which contains the details of what happened, and examination findings to date.
Interim Report on Battery
A Lineas Aereas Suramericanas LAS cargo flight (Bogota-Quito route) developed an engine issue en route and returned to El Dorado airport.
Engine issue? I’d say so. Parts fell off in a residential area in Fontibon, San Jose, Bogotá Colombia. Two people (one struck, one burned) and ten homes were affected. Twenty-one year old Aceneth Roldán was struck in the neck.
Neighborhood residents said the falling pieces sounded like falling glass as it struck their tile roofing. Aeronáutica Civil is doing a survey of the residents to assess the damage, which is minor.
Pieces apparently came from one engine of the Boeing 727.
Almost 400 cows aboard a Boeing 747 heated the craft up so much they set off the fire alarm. Pilots diverted from their location over the Irish sea, and made a safe landing at Heathrow.
This did not happen April 1st, so we are presuming it is an actual event.
None of the 390 cattle were injured. The carrier may wish to remain nameless as the name of airline involved was not released, perhaps fearing a reduction in cattle bookings. (Yes, this is sarcasm. Cows can’t read and their choice of carrier is not likely to hinge on written emergency reports.)
After landing, maintenance crews checked the plane’s fire alarm system and found no smoke or fire, concluding that cows were the culprits causing excessive heat. We assume none of the cows were smoking.
Two Ryanair Boeing 737-800 planes collided in the parking area of the London Stansted Airport, Essex, at around 6:50 a.m. on June 28. One of the planes was about to take off for Warsaw, Poland, while the other had just landed from Frankfurt Hahn, Germany.
The tail cone of one plane and the wing tip of the other was damaged in the collision. A spokesperson of the Stansted Airport said, “We can confirm two aircraft were involved in a minor collision while on the ground at Stansted this morning. Both planes suffered some damage but there were no reported injuries to passengers or crew.”
The passengers of the out-going flight had to face a three-hour delay before they were transferred to another plane.
Robin Kiely, the spokesperson of Ryanair, said, “Our Stansted-based engineering team are currently investigating and will repair both aircraft and return them to service as soon as possible… Ryanair sincerely apologises to the affected passengers for any inconvenience.”
Essex Police responded on the scene. They conducted routine breath tests on both of the pilots. There were no signs of alcohol. No further police action will be taken.
Pictured: Lion Airlines Boeing 737-46B
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer JKSC
What: Lion Air Boeing 737-400
Where: Pekanbaru airport, Sumatra
When: December 14, 2009
Who: 165 passengers
Why: On landing, the flight skidded off the runway. It took an hour to evacuate the panicked passengers via mobile stairway.
After a maintenance check, a replacement crew resumed the flight hours later.
Norwegian Air Shuttle flight DY-7019 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Shannon Airport, Ireland, on June 11th.
The Boeing 787-800 plane heading from Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, to John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, was diverted due to a technical issue.
The plane landed safely. All two hundred and ninety-four people aboard remained unharmed.
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Marcelo Magalhaes
What: Varig Logistica Boeing 757-200 freighter en route from Manaus to Sao Paulo
Where: Manaus
When: Nov 10th 2010
Who: 2 crew
Why: While lining up for departure, a freighter loaded with 30 tons of goods to Sao Paulo got stuck on the runway when two main gear tires deflated. Rain and the beached plane effectively disabled most of the runway for several hours.
Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance
I find the timing of this incident extremely ironic, when noticing that today we have also received and published a press release highlighting how the “Goodyear Expert Cites Tips for Proper Aircraft Tire Maintenance,” a press release showcasing a Goodyear Tires Product Support Manager’s Tire maintenance manual. It even has photo sections for aviation “tire whisperers” who want to recognize what happened to a tire by the visible damage.
You would think that we would know tires get flat by now, if only from our experience of all the cars on the road.
