Japanese airlines ground troubled Dreamliner

All Nippon Airways Co. said instruments aboard a domestic flight indicated a battery error, triggering emergency warnings to the pilots. It said the battery in the forward cargo hold was the same lithium-ion type as one involved in a fire on another Dreamliner at a U.S. airport last week.

The carrier grounded all 17 of its 787s, and Japan Airlines Co. suspended its 787 flights scheduled for Wednesday. ANA said its planes could be back in the air as soon as Thursday once checks were completed. The two carriers operate around half of the 50 Dreamliners delivered by Boeing to date.

Wednesday's incident, described by a transport ministry official as “highly serious” — language used in international safety circles as indicating there could have been an accident — is the latest in a line of mishaps — fuel leaks, a battery fire, wiring problem, brake computer glitch and cracked cockpit window — to hit the world's first mainly carbon-composite airliner in recent days.

“I think you're nearing the tipping point where they need to regard this as a serious crisis,” said Richard Aboulafia, a senior analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. “This is going to change people's perception of the aircraft if they don't act quickly.”

The 787, which has a list price of US$207 million, represents a leap in the way planes are designed and built, but the project has been plagued by cost overruns and years of delays. Some have suggested Boeing's rush to get planes built after those delays resulted in the recent problems, a charge the company strenuously denies.

Both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said they were monitoring the latest incident as part of a comprehensive review of the Dreamliner announced late last week.

Alarm Triggered

ANA flight 692 left Yamaguchi Airport in western Japan shortly after 8 a.m. local time (2300 GMT Tuesday) bound for Haneda Airport near Tokyo, a 65-minute flight. About 18 minutes into the flight, at 30,000 feet, the plane began a descent, cutting its altitude to 20,000 feet in about four minutes. It made an emergency landing 16 minutes later, according to flight-tracking website Flightaware.com.

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