Boeing is close to fixing the battery problems with the grounded 787 Dreamliner jets , according to a source familiar with the company’s plans.
The US company’s 50 Dreamliners have been grounded worldwide since last month. Battery-related incidents grounded the jets, including a battery fire in a parked plane in the US and an in-flight battery problem on another plane in Japan.
Boeing will also be staved of delivery payments until the Dreamliner is able to fly once more, reports Reuters . The source stated of the work to fix the battery:
“The gaps between cells will be bigger. I think that’s why there was over heating.”
The chairman of state-run Air India AIN.UL, Rohit Nandan, stated that the company is hopeful the Dreamliner will take to the skies again in early April. Nandan stated:
“They said that these planes should start flying again from early April. They can’t be sure but they are hopeful.”
Yahoo! News notes that Air India currently has six Dreamliners in service. The airline has also ordered 21 more. A Boeing spokesman in Seattle also said that “good progress is being made” in the effort to correct the 787 Dreamliner’s battery problems. The spokesman added:
“We have been in close communication with our customers since this issue arose. The details of our conversations with customers are confidential.”
Japan’s All Nippon Airlines currently has the largest fleet of Dreamliners. A spokesman for the airline was not aware of the suggested April schedule. The same was true for Japan Airlines. The two companies have been most affected by the Dreamliner’s battery problems, because they own about half of the jetliners currently in operation.
[Image by José A. Montes (Flickr: Boeing 787 Dreamliner N787BX) [ CC-BY-2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons ]