787 Dreamliner electrical fire still under investigation, says Boeing

    Nov. 11, 2010
    EVERETT, Wash., 11 Nov. 2010. The cause of an electrical fire in the electronics bay onboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner earlier this week is still under investigation, say Boeing officials. Until the cause of the fire has been determined Boeing is postponing flight test activities on other airplanes -- ground test activities will be conducted in the mean time.
    Posted by John McHaleEVERETT, Wash., 11 Nov. 2010. The cause of an electrical fire in the electronics bay onboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner earlier this week is still under investigation, say Boeing officials. Until the cause of the fire has been determined Boeing is postponing flight test activities on other airplanes -- ground test activities will be conducted in the mean time. During approach to Laredo, Texas, on Nov. 9, Boeing's ZA002 787 aircraft lost primary electrical power as a result of an onboard electrical fire.Backup systems, including the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), functioned as expected and allowed the crew to complete a safe landing, according to a Boeing statement. The pilots executed a safe landing and at all times had positive control of the airplane and all of the information necessary to perform that safe landing, company officials say.Early inspection results show apparently indicate that a power control panel in the aft electronics bay will need to be replaced on ZA002. Boeing officials say they are inspecting the power panel and surrounding area near that panel to determine if other repairs will be necessary.According to the Boeing statement the 787 team was conducting monitoring of the nitrogen generation system at the time of the incident but there is no reason to suspect that the monitoring or earlier testing of that system had anything to do with the incident.Company officials say they retrieved flight data from the airplane and are analyzing it in Seattle -- a process that will take several days. The impact of this fire on the overall program schedule will not be determined until Boeing engineers have worked through the data, according to the statement.

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