The Federal Aviation Administration, in an unusual high-priority review, said it would focus on how the 787 was designed, manufactured and assembled. Michael P. Huerta, the F.A.A.’s administrator, said the agency would take a special look at the airplane’s electrical systems, including batteries and power distribution, and how they interact with one another.
The F.A.A. had spent 200,000 hours reviewing the 787 before certifying it for passenger flights, and officials have repeatedly expressed confidence in the plane’s safety. Still, officials said, the incidents of the last week involving electric components were forcing the review of the certification process as well as Boeing assembly standards.
“We are concerned about recent events involving the Boeing 787,” Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, said at a news conference in Washington. “We will look for the root causes of the recent events and do everything we can to ensure these events don’t happen again.”
The review came as the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating why a battery pack caught fire in a parked 787 at Logan International Airport in Boston on Monday. The fire occurred in a Japan Airlines plane from Tokyo after the passengers and crew had left the plane.
The battery, which powers the auxiliary power unit used when the plane is on the ground, sustained “severe fire damage,” according to the safety board. It took firefighters 40 minutes to extinguish the blaze, the board said. One firefighter was injured.
The F.A.A. review will not require the grounding of the 787 fleet, officials said. Boeing has delivered 50 of the airplanes since the first commercial flight in November 2011 and has received orders for more than 800.
Eight airlines now fly the 787: All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines in Japan, Air India, Ethiopian Airlines, Chile’s LAN Airlines, Poland’s LOT, Qatar Airways and United Airlines.
Boeing has much riding on the 787, which makes extensive use of lightweight carbon composites and packs more electrical systems than older planes. The company’s chairman, Jim McNerney, said on Friday that it was “100 percent behind the integrity of the 787.” The 787 is the first new airplane to be certified in the United States since the Boeing 777 in 1995.
“Every new commercial airplane has issues when it enters service,” said Raymond L. Conner, the head of Boeing’s commercial airplane division. Boeing will work closely with the F.A.A. during the review, he said.
It is uncommon for the F.A.A. to open a review of an airplane it has already certified, but the action on Friday pointed to increased concern by regulators.
The 787 relies more on electronics than previous generations of airplanes. Electrical systems, not mechanical ones, operate hydraulic pumps, de-ice the wings, pressurize the cabin and handle other tasks. The plane also has electric brakes instead of hydraulic ones.
This electric architecture helps cut energy consumption and makes the aircraft more efficient to operate. But by making such extensive use of electrical systems, Boeing introduced a higher level of complexity in the production of the plane, contributing to more than three years of delays.
Since much was new with the airplane, the F.A.A. and Boeing developed new certification standards. The agency also granted Boeing the authority to self-certify some of its work. Mr. Huerta defended that approach on Friday, saying the process had been rigorous.
Still, he said, the “the focus will be on validating the work done in the certification process and ensuring certification standards set are being met in the manufacturing process.”
“There is nothing in the data that suggests the plane is not safe,” he added.
Bettina Wassener contributed reporting from Hong Kong and Nicola Clark from Paris.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/business/faa-to-begin-a-review-of-boeing-787s.html?partner=rss&emc=rss