A 787 belonging to Air India on a flight from Sydney to New Delhi made an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur after all three of the plane’s flight management computer screens went blank. At total of 231 people were on board the Dreamliner, including 18 crew members. There were no injuries reported after the plane landed.
Last month, Japan Airlines experienced a battery fire in a parked 787. Battery fires forced flight safety regulators to ground the entire fleet of Dreamliners for three months last year. The latest fire is still being investigated and the cause of the overheating has not yet been identified.
To complicate matters, a report in the Financial Times notes the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Air India’s aviation safety ratings because the airline’s practices do not meet international safety standards.
Air India owns 12 of the 787 Dreamliners and has ordered a total of 27 of the new planes, and this is not the first problem the carrier has had. Last October a fuselage panel fell off, exposing some components and structure of the plane, and in November one plane’s windshield cracked upon landing. Last month, an Air India Dreamliner was forced to return to London following the failure of a transponder.
An aviation industry executive told the Financial Times, “For all new aircraft programmes … such as the 787, these are part of the initial teething troubles, as the airline and its maintenance people get to know the aircraft.” That sounds like he thinks it is Air India’s fault that Boeing cannot fix a battery problem on its newest and most advanced aircraft.
But the Indian company is not the only one suffering from the Dreamliner issues. That makes the problem Boeing’s — and the company simply does not seem to want to put enough effort into fixing the problems with the Dreamliner. A prediction: we will still be reading about battery problems with the 787 at this time next year.
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