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Ethiopian Airlines Plane Diverts to Ireland due to Engine Shut Down

Ethiopian airlinesEthiopian Airlines flight ETH-500 had to make an emergency landing at Dublin Airport, Ireland, on the morning of October 23.

The Boeing 787-800 flying from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Washington DC, had to divert due to an engine problem. The crew decided to shut down an engine mid-air.

The plane landed safely after dumping thousands of litres of fuel.

No injuries were reported.

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Ethiopian Airlines Fire at Heathrow


photographer Josh May

An Ethiopian Airlines’ Queen of Sheba, a Boeing 787 #ET-AOP which had been sitting empty for eight hours caught fire and shut down Heathrow Airport for an hour Friday. The fire seems to have started in the upper fuselage, far from the 787’s lithium-ion batteries. A battery fire would have been “contained by the new casing and…smoke would have been vented outside of the airplane.” Nearly a dozen fire trucks responded to the scene. The plane was parked on the apron taxiway E at Stand 592 next to a fire station.

#ET-AOP had arrived from Addis Ababa as flight ET700 at 06:30a.m. Departure was scheduled as ET701 to Addis Ababa at 21:10.

In photos, damage appears on the outside top of the upper fuselage near the vertical stabilizer, on the left side of the top of the airplane just in front of the tail. The fire was not caused by lithium-ion batteries, which are in in the cargo-bay.

Potential causes of the fire:

  • a gadget such as the coffeemaker
  • a manufacturing or installation defect in his jet;
  • a different systemic defect in the 787 model

NTSB Sends Investigator to Participate in Investigation of London Boeing 787 Dreamliner Fire

The National Transportation Safety Board has sent an investigator to assist in the investigation of a fire that occurred yesterday aboard a parked Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Heathrow Airport, London, England.
NTSB Senior Air Safety Investigator Lorenda Ward has been appointed as the traveling U.S. accredited representative. Ms. Ward will be accompanied by NTSB airplane systems investigators and representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing.
The investigation is being conducted by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the United Kingdom, which will release all information.

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Ethiopia Denies Boeing test Flights

Mr. Tewolde Gebremariam, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, has announced that Ethiopian Airlines has begun flying to Milan. The nonstop service between Addis Ababa and Milan is only one of 63 destinations offered, and it’s maiden flight was July 2nd.

The airport at Addis Ababa has been involved in an expansion program, leading Boeing to ask the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for landing rights—Boeing wants to conduct high-altitude tests there but the request was denied. However, in October 2006 Airbus conducted a flight test for its A380 in Addis Ababa.

Officials claim congestion due to construction is behind the denial.

Addis Ababa is a high altitude airport and preferred for high altitude testing.

Private airlines at the Addis Ababa airport operate under an aviation regulation that prohibits private airlines from operating aircraft with over a 20-seat capacity.

Capt. Solomon Gizaw, owner and managing director of Abyssinia Flight Services calls this a protectionist practice.

“Do you know why the governments put the 20-seat limit? It is to protect Ethiopian Airlines. We all like the national flag carrier. But how long will it be protected?”

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Ethiopia Airlines: Hydraulic Failure


Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer AlphaSierra

What: Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 757-200 en route from Addis Ababa to Rome
Where: Rome
When: Apr 5 2010
Why: On approach to Rome, the Ethiopian Airlines jet experienced hydraulic failure. The flight made a safe landing, but had to be towed to the apron. No injuries were reported.