NTSB on 787 - Investigation continues

Neelam Mathews
Jan 25, 2013

Air India will have to wait to fly its 787s as FAA, not NTSB, will decide when the worldwide grounding will be lifted and the investigation "may take some time," NTSB Board Chairman Deborah Hersman, said at an update briefing in Washington yesterday.

“We have to understand why this battery failure resulted in a fire when there were so many protections designed into the system.... This is not something we’re expecting will be resolved overnight, " said Hersman.

It is now 17 days following the investigation of the battery incident that led to the grounding of the 787 fleet.“Today I can tell you what we know so far....We know that the lithium-ion battery experienced a thermal runaway. We know that there were short circuits, and we know that there was a fire. The work that we continue to do will tell us why these things happened.”

The ANA 787 smoke issue on Jan which led to an emergency landing, is also linked to a damaged lithium ion battery, and “is an unprecedented event. We are very concerned,” she added. “This is a very serious air safety concern.”

The lithium-ion APU battery used to start the auxiliary power unit (APU) on the JAL 787 that caught fire on January 7  at  Boston’s Logan Airport  experiencing an uncontrolled chemical reaction known as a “thermal runway” and short circuiting. The cause is still not known “The APU battery was spilling molten electrolytes,” she said.