F.A.A. Endorses Boeing Remedy for 787 Battery

Agency inspectors will oversee Boeing’s work in adjusting the planes, the agency said, and both the F.A.A. administrator, Michael P. Huerta, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said they were are satisfied that the proposed changes would eliminate concerns that the plane’s two lithium-ion batteries could erupt in smoke or fire.

The changes “will ensure the safety of the aircraft and its passengers,” Mr. LaHood said Friday.

The decision was a major milestone for Boeing and its innovative jet. Aviation analysts said the battery problems this year had cost Boeing hundreds of millions of dollars and slowed its progress in fielding the planes, which reduce fuel costs by 20 percent and have been in great demand by the airlines. Boeing’s shares were up by 0.8 percent to $86.79 a share at midday Friday.

The 50 jets delivered so far were grounded worldwide after two incidents in January in which the volatile batteries caught fire or emitted smoke. Boeing has said the new battery systems are ready to go, and it would install them on the planes it has already delivered before changing the jets still in production.

Boeing’s fix includes more insulation between each of the eight cells in the batteries. The batteries will also be encased in a new steel box designed to contain any fire and vent possible smoke or hazardous gases out of the planes.

The F.A.A.’s decision marks the most critical step toward getting the planes back in the air. But flights won’t resume immediately. The agency said next week it would sign off on specific instructions that Boeing is preparing for the airlines on how to handle the battery system.

The F.A.A. also will publish a final directive that would effectively lift the grounding order issued in January and allow each plane to return to service as soon as it is modified.

And while the authorities in the United States may be satisfied with the Boeing fix, aviation regulators in Japan and other countries must also weigh in and approve the system. Japan is a critical market for Boeing. About half of all 787s delivered so far are operated by two Japanese airlines — All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines — and Japanese companies manufactured about a third of the plane’s components, including its wings.

The Japanese transportation minister, Akihiro Ota, said Friday in Tokyo that Japan’s own assessment of the safety of Boeing’s battery changes was “in its final stages.”

“We’re doing our best to ensure a safe and speedy return to service,” he said.

But Japanese regulators could ask Boeing for additional safeguards, the Nikkei business daily reported Friday. Japanese regulators remain concerned that investigators have not pinned down precisely why the batteries overheated in the first place.

Those extra safeguards could include adding devices to transmit voltage and other vital data to controllers on the ground so the batteries can be routinely monitored for irregularities, according to the Nikkei report.

Japan could also require test flights of each plane fitted with the altered battery, the Nikkei said. Regulators in Tokyo could also ask the airlines to conduct more frequent battery checks and retire the batteries after a set period, even if they do not show signs of wear.

Airlines are eager for the planes to fly again. Both A.N.A. and United Airlines had included the 787 on domestic and international routes in flight schedules that start on May 31, provided that aviation authorities lifted the plane’s grounding.

Another operator, Qatar Airlines, had suggested it would seek an even more aggressive schedule and wants to get the planes back in the air before the end of April.

Despite the grounding, Boeing has not seen any impact on the more than 800 orders it has booked for the plane. The 787 is the first commercial aircraft built largely from lighter carbon-composite materials, and it uses more electronic systems on board than conventional airplanes. As a result, the 787 promises significant fuel savings, especially over long distances.

Still, the government’s decision to approve the fixes was not a surprise. The F.A.A.’s engineers oversaw Boeing’s design of the changes as well as more than 20 types of tests conducted on them over the last month. Boeing had said that it had successfully wrapped up the tests in a flight by a 787 on April 5.

The F.A.A. approval also came before the National Transportation Safety Board hearings next week on why a battery caught fire in a plane parked in Boston on Jan. 7. The board is also examining how Boeing and the F.A.A. underestimated any risks in approving the original battery design in 2007.

By approving the fixes ahead of the safety board’s hearings, the F.A.A. — and Boeing — presumably hopes to deflect any criticism about how it originally certified the plane. The agency could argue that, if the risks were underestimated initially, the new battery system should prevent that from happening again.

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting.

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