Mumbai: On October 27, an Air India Dreamliner flight to New Delhi with 200 passengers on board had to abort its journey and return to Melbourne after takeoff due to a technical snag.
Barely 10 odd days before this incident, on October 15, a large panel on a brand new Dreamliner (VT-ANO), Air India's ninth Boeing 787, flew off mid-air. The aircraft landed safely despite the “gaping hole in the belly” as it was described by certain sections of the press.
Earlier this year Air India suffered a major setback, grounding its six Dreamliner fleet for nearly four months, after being ordered to do so by the country’s civil aviation regulator, which followed similar moves by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators in Europe, South America and Japan. The moves were prompted by fires on two Dreamliner aircraft including a JAL 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport and an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight which was forced to make an emergency landing due to battery issues. A United Airlines flight had also reported wiring problems on one of its six 787 fleet around the same period.
Regulators officially lifted the groundings between April and May this year after the problematic lithium-ion batteries were replaced with a revamped battery system. But the Dreamliner has continued to suffer a series of technical snags post the resumption of operations.
31/10/13 Nikhil Inamdar/Business Standard
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Barely 10 odd days before this incident, on October 15, a large panel on a brand new Dreamliner (VT-ANO), Air India's ninth Boeing 787, flew off mid-air. The aircraft landed safely despite the “gaping hole in the belly” as it was described by certain sections of the press.
Earlier this year Air India suffered a major setback, grounding its six Dreamliner fleet for nearly four months, after being ordered to do so by the country’s civil aviation regulator, which followed similar moves by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other regulators in Europe, South America and Japan. The moves were prompted by fires on two Dreamliner aircraft including a JAL 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport and an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight which was forced to make an emergency landing due to battery issues. A United Airlines flight had also reported wiring problems on one of its six 787 fleet around the same period.
Regulators officially lifted the groundings between April and May this year after the problematic lithium-ion batteries were replaced with a revamped battery system. But the Dreamliner has continued to suffer a series of technical snags post the resumption of operations.
31/10/13 Nikhil Inamdar/Business Standard
