Boeing runs proposed 787 battery fix by Japanese officials

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TOKYO Boeing CEO Ray Conner met with Japan's transport minister and other officials in Tokyo on Thursday to explain his company's proposal for resolving problems with the 787 Dreamliner's lithium-ion batteries that have kept the aircraft grounded for over a month.

Conner met with Akihiro Ota, who heads the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and with the director general of the Civil Aviation Bureau, to explain the proposed solution to the problem of the batteries overheating, Boeing said.

Connor met earlier with All Nippon Airways, Boeing's launch customer with 17 of the 787s, said ANA spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka. She said the contents of the discussion were confidential.

A staffer at Japan Airlines headquarters in Tokyo said he could not confirm if Conner had already met with JAL executives.

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Boeing's plan, presented to U.S. regulators last week, calls for revamping the batteries to prevent potential short-circuiting from spreading from any one battery cell to others.

Conner told reporters in Tokyo that the proposal takes into account "any possible events."

"It is not an interim solution. This is a permanent solution," the Kyodo News Service quoted him as saying. "We are very hopeful that we will get the aircraft back in the air very soon."

Officials in the U.S. said Boeing would fix the problem with the batteries overheating by putting more robust ceramic insulation around each of the battery's eight cells so as to prevent any thermal runaway, a chemical reaction that leads to progressively hotter temperatures that was found in damaged batteries in JAL and ANA incidents.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is considering the plan.

Dreamliners were grounded worldwide after an overheated battery aboard an ANA 787 domestic flight forced an emergency landing in Japan on Jan. 16. Investigators are still probing the cause of that event, and of a Jan. 7 fire that erupted in an auxiliary power unit battery of a JAL 787 about a half-hour after the plane landed at Boston's Logan International Airport.

There are a total of 50 of the planes in service worldwide, and Boeing had orders for 800 of the airliners at the time they were grounded.

ANA has extended the cancellations of its 787 flights to May 31, with the total number of flights affected at nearly 3,600 and involving some 167,820 passengers. JAL has cancelled its 787 flights through Mar. 30.

[flysafer]

General Rosenker's conduct today on CBS was more that of a carnival huckste trying to sell Boeing's 'fix' for the 787 like it was a bottle of snake oill than that of a distinguished officer and past chair of the NTSB.
I call upon CBS to disclose the financial relationships between themselves and the General, and Boeing, including any investments, advertising revenue and other conflicts of interest.
In the interest of transparency and credibility, it's certain that CBS and the general won't have a problem complying, will they?

[webgone]

Thanks for the above insider review, we need to know.

[BKM2012]

@FRMC1309. This is the best comment I've seen on the 787 batter incendiary.
Causes are conflicting, unknown -- Boeing provides permanent solution when they rejected the battery fire & explosion in Arizona at Securaplane plant in 2006 as faulty test set-up. In reality, the test set-up was fabricated afterwards to make the battery look good in close cooperation of the vicious triangle of Boeing/FAA/Securaplane. The whistleblower Michael Leon was fired in 2007 from Securaplane for raising the issue of unsafe 787 battery. Secura management fired him on the ground of misconduct. The flying passengers cannot trust the Boeing-FAA heinous duopoly. Yes, the Japanese regulators must stand steadfast to find the rootcause (not found yet) and hence, the solution can be apprehended. Boeing is proposing a permanent solution when the causes are unknown. Also, the Japanese battery maker isn't buying into Boeing's spurious solution. Boeing /FAA duo is under the ethical lense of public eyes.
"Ethical axioms are not different than axioms of science" -Albert Einstein

[Yes_ABWH_Fan]

In 1977, my half brother, Doug Myers, invented a capacitor circuit to "clear" shorts from rechargeable NiCad batteries, permitting them to charge normally again.
Popular Electronics published his article, which featured a large cartoon wizard "zapping" a battery.
Perhaps Boeing might consider this as a better fix to their Lithium rechargeables.

[FrMc1309]

Boeing met with the JCAB (japanese regulators) and it is my understanding that the Japanese are concerned the Boeing fix does not cover all possible causes of the battery problem. It could also be started by a thermal condition or short outside the battery.
Boeing is trying the fast/cheap route to get it in the air as quickly as possible. It would take too long to assure protection outside the battery and to provide additional cooling in the avionics bays.

Lets see if Boeing can strong arm the Japanese regulators the same way they can the FAA. Hopefully the Japanese regulators will stand strong and protect the flying public even if Boeing and the FAA will not.