December 7, 2024

All Nippon Airways Takes Dreamliner With Improved Battery on Test Flight

A 787 carrying top executives from Boeing and All Nippon took off from Haneda Airport on Tokyo’s waterfront Sunday morning, without incident. In the past week, regulators in the United States, Europe and Japan have all signed off on the battery fixes.

Smaller airlines are already moving ahead in reintroducing the jet to their fleets, including Ethiopian Airlines, which used a 787 Saturday on a two-hour commercial flight from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya.

But the resumption of 787 flights at All Nippon and Japan Airlines, which together own half the 50 Dreamliner jets Boeing has so far delivered, will prove the real test of whether the modified batteries will eliminate further mishaps, as well as passenger response. Both airlines have said they hope to resume commercial flights in June.

Japanese and American regulators have been investigating the lithium-ion batteries aboard the 787 after a fire on Jan. 7 in a Japan Airlines 787 parked at a gate at Boston’s Logan Airport. A second incident later that month, involving a similar battery on an All Nippon Airways plane on a Japanese domestic flight, triggered an emergency landing and led to the worldwide grounding of the planes.

Boeing engineers say their fixes to the batteries — which include better insulation between the eight cells in the battery, gentler charging to minimize stress and a new titanium venting system — eliminate all potential causes of battery fire. But the engineers also acknowledged that they may never know what caused the batteries to overheat on the Japan Airlines and All Nippon aircraft because the battery cells were so damaged.

Besides Boeing’s repairs, Japan’s Transport Ministry has requested that All Nippon and Japan Airlines also install improved battery monitoring systems on its planes, and put its 787 cockpit crews through additional flight training. Once the planes are back in service, the airlines will also take a sample of batteries every few months for tests to make sure the improvements are working.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/business/global/boeing-787-dreamliner-with-improved-battery-takes-test-flight.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Sudan and South Sudan Agree to Resume Oil Production

“Resumption of production shall take place as soon as technically feasible,” the agreement read.

South Sudan became independent of Sudan in 2011, taking with it nearly three quarters of the oil wealth. The pipelines, refinery and port to export the oil, however, are in Sudan.

The two sides, longstanding enemies that fought one of Africa’s longest and costliest civil wars, have been at odds for decades, and South Sudan halted oil production in January 2012 in a dispute with Sudan over transportation fees. Both countries came close to full-out war in April 2012.

Both countries have suffered from the loss of oil revenues, with South Sudan depending on oil for 98 percent of its revenue.

“We assume that we will resume as soon as possible,” South Sudan’s petroleum and mining minister, Stephen Dhieu Dau, told reporters in Juba, adding that it would take roughly three weeks to resume production, Reuters reported.

The agreement, signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the supervision of the African Union, sets a timetable and the mechanisms to enact a cooperation agreement signed by both countries last September.

In addition to oil production, other matters addressed in the cooperation agreement are to be immediately carried out in the next two to three weeks, including security arrangements, the demarcation of borders, the status of people living across borders, trade, economics and pensions.

“March 10th is the D-Day to implement the agreement,” Sudan’s chief negotiator, Idris Abdel-Gadir, told reporters in Khartoum.

Before Tuesday’s agreement, the defense ministers of both sides agreed to begin the establishment of a demilitarized zone along the border as part of the agreed-upon security arrangements.

The Sudanese defense minister, Abdel-Rahim Hussein, confirmed on Sunday that Sudanese troops had begun withdrawing from the border zone. A day later, South Sudan’s military spokesman, Philip Aguer, said orders had been given to South Sudanese troops to withdraw from the border area.

In a statement, the United States State Department said, “The United States welcomes the technical agreement signed between Sudan and South Sudan establishing a safe demilitarized border zone (SDBZ), a firm timeline for the withdrawal of forces, and a way ahead for the deployment of a joint border monitoring force.”

At the United Nations Security Council, which discussed the Sudan-South Sudan tensions on Tuesday, Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador, told reporters that while council members had welcomed the agreements, she was also cautious, given the troubled history.

“There have been many agreements signed but too few actually implemented,” she said. The importance of agreements, she said, was that “they are not just signed and touted but in fact implemented in real terms promptly on the ground.”

No final agreement on the disputed district of Abyei was made, but a timeline to establish an administration, council and security council in the district were set up.

Both sides are scheduled to meet again on Sunday in Addis Ababa.

Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/world/africa/sudan-and-south-sudan-agree-to-resume-oil-production.html?partner=rss&emc=rss