Japan Safety Board Issues Report on Dreamliner Emergency Landing

A report released Thursday in Japan suggests a short circuit within the main battery of a Boeing 787 led to the emergency landing of the Dreamliner in western Japan last year.

The Japan Transportation Safety Board (JTSB) released their findings more than a year after the incident aboard All Nippon Airways Flight 692, on January 16, 2013, when pilots detected fumes in the Dreamliner’s cockpit and a warning light indicated a battery problem.

The aircraft made an emergency landing at Takamatsu Airport (TAK) with 129 passengers aboard. Inflammable liquid was found leaking from the battery casing.

“Internal heat generation in cell six very likely developed into venting, making it the initiating cell, resulting in cell-to-cell propagation and subsequent failure of the main battery,” the report said, according to Flightglobal.com.

Thursday’s JSTB report does not detail a “conclusive mechanism” that led to the battery failure. But it does support the theory that heat buildup is the problem and increased spacing between cells and bombproof containment might add to the solution.

Japanese investigators also concluded their tests indicate “the battery box was not grounded with a ground wire.”

The report recommends the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration “supervise Boeing” and reconsider its standards for lithium-ion batteries.

Last year’s ANA incident came just five days after Japan Airlines experienced a battery fire on an empty Dreamliner parked at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS). For Boeing, the failures were part of a long string of Dreamliner troubles.

After the emergency landing at TAK, both ANA and Japan Airlines grounded their Dreamliner fleets. Within hours there was a four-month global grounding of all Boeing 787 aircraft.

As a fix to get the Dreamliner airborne again, Boeing increased the space between battery cells and enclosed the battery in a steel box with a vent.

The NTSB will release its own report on the ANA battery incident within a few weeks.

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