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(Image source: NTSB)
BY NICHOLE CARTMELL ANCHOR MIKAH SARGENT
Safety officials painted a graphic picture Thursday of the battery that caught fire
on board a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Boston earlier this month. But investigators still
do not know what caused the fire. The chairman for the National Transportation Safety Board
says this is a serious air safety concern.
“This is an unprecedented event. We are very concerned as I mentioned in the beginning.
We do not expect to see fire events on board aircraft.”
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all 50 Dreamliner aircraft in operation around
the world after two incidents involving the plane’s batteries happened just 10 days
apart.
CNN explains the NTSB determined the lithium ion battery on the Boston aircraft experienced
a "thermal runaway" and a "short circuit." But safety investigators have yet to determine
which event occurred first, or if they were the cause or the effect of the incident.
According to The New York Times, this particular battery was built specifically for the 787
and needed special approval from the FAA. And while the FAA signed off on these designs,
The New York Times suggests the type of battery is to blame.
“Fires involving lithium-ion batteries cannot be extinguished easily: when batteries of
the type used on the 787 burn, they release oxygen, which feeds the fire, and they essentially
must be allowed to burn out.”
In a column for Chicago Business a professor explains Boeing outsourced a fairly high percentage
of the plane's pieces, instead of producing them internally. Many attribute Boeing’s
current problems to this factor. But he argues the technical problems might have been inevitable,
even if the pieces weren’t outsourced.
“It is certainly possible that the Dreamliner's current problems are derived from its design
... and that these problems would have been just as significant had Boeing sourced more
subassemblies internally.”
Boeing said in a statement it’s working “tirelessly” to resolve the plane’s
issues — and called safety the company’s “highest priority.”