Regulators made the call to ground the planes after two incidents thought to be battery related. On Wednesday, an All Nippon Airways flight in Japan made an emergency landing after the crew reported “smoke in the cockpit” and the battery-warning light went off. Last week, a Japan Airlines Dreamliner caught fire at Boston’s Logan Airport.
The emergency order was a result of the second incident “to address a potential battery-fire risk in the 787” and will “require operators to temporarily cease operations,” the FAA said in a statement.
“Before further flight, operators of U.S.-registered, Boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the batteries are safe and in compliance,” the statement said.
This shouldn’t have a major effect on your air travel in the U.S. — United only flies six of the planes, which they first started flying in November.
This will make a big, big difference in my next ticket purchasing decision.
Wonderful. Now when head office sends us overseas on investigative assignments, we won’t even be able to relax during the plane ride. Just kidding, we don’t have a head office. Or any kind of office. Or enough money to buy plane tickets.
Alec Baldwin kicked off American Airlines flight at LAX for playing Words With Friends.
Also: FAA chief says he will resign following drunken driving arrest
Today in soft news with a little of the serious stuff at the end.
» That doesn’t seem like many, right? Yeah, you’re right … while there were another 105 delayed flights worldwide, the fact of the matter is, it happened on a Friday night – the best possible time for a total system shutdown. While travelers were understandably angry, it was the difference between thousands of angry people and hundreds of thousands of angry people.
salt-water-chardonnay asks: FYI United's computer problems aren't the only travel issue right now. There are hundreds of us stuck in the Continental terminal at Newark after missing connections due to weather delays. They shut customer service at midnight even though there were at least 100 of us still in line who had been waiting over 2 hours. I'm currently on hold with Continental and have been for an hour after trying since midnight to get through and repeatedly getting a busy signal.
» SFB says: That’s incredibly lame … we’ve been there. And unlike United, nobody’s really covering this mess. (EDIT: According to ProducerMatthew, it’s possible that the United mess could be related, as Continental is run by United and it might be affecting their customer service.) Any luck, or does it look like you’ll be stuck overnight? — Ernie @ SFB
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