By Matt Tomsic
mtomsic@scbiznews.com
Published Jan. 9, 2013

A fire aboard a Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner Monday severely damaged one of the airplane’s batteries, according to investigators.

The National Transportation Safety Board, the Boeing Co., the Japan Transport Safety Board and Japan Airlines are investigating Monday’s fire at Logan International Airport in Boston.

NTSB investigator Mike Bauer inspects the inside of the Japan Airlines Boeing 787 under investigation at Boston's Logan Airport after a fire. (Photo/NTSB)

After passengers and crew disembarked, maintenance and cleaning personnel found smoke in the cabin and called firefighters, who put out the fire about 40 minutes after arriving on scene. One firefighter had minor injuries, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which sent investigators to Boston. Boeing employees in Washington state assembled the 787 damaged by the fire.

The battery is used to start the 787’s auxiliary power unit and only damaged its surrounding structure and components near the back of its battery rack in the aft electronics bay.

A Boeing spokeswoman said the aerospace giant is working closely with investigators.

“Nothing that we’ve seen in this case indicates a relationship to any previous 787 power system events, which involved power panel faults elsewhere in the aft electrical equipment bay,” said Lorie Gunter, a spokeswoman for the company, in a statement. “Information about the prior events has been shared with the NTSB, and they are aware of the details.”

Boeing also reported a second Dreamliner incident at Logan International Airport Tuesday that was unrelated to Monday's fire.

Richard Walsh, a spokesman at the airport, said the Japan Airlines Dreamliner was taxiing for departure about 12:25 p.m., when it began leaking fuel from its left side.

Walsh said about 40 gallons fell onto the runway, and the 787 was towed back to the gate. Passengers left the plane, which was inspected and cleared. The 787 left Boston about 4 p.m. for its trip to Tokyo.

Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, emphasized 787s continue to fly in a blog post Tuesday.

“The airplanes are in service with eight customers — having logged more than 18,000 flight cycles and flown more than 50,000 hours,” Tinseth wrote. “We have complete confidence in the 787 and vow to take care of any issues our customers are experiencing — day or night.”

Contact Matt Tomsic at 843-849-3144.

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