An Air India Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft was grounded in Chennai airport on Thursday morning.
The move mirrors similar cautionary measures taken worldwide after a Dreamliner made an emergency landing in Japan on Wednesday following a risk of fire associated with battery failure.
The director general of civil aviation, Arun Mishra, asked Air India to discontinue operation of its six Dreamliners until safety concerns were addressed.
According to an Air India official, the Dreamliner in Chennai was scheduled to leave for New Delhi with 138 passengers at 10.45 a.m. on Thursday.
Following the grounding instruction, the passengers, along with 80 others waiting to board a Bangalore-bound flight, were accommodated in an Air India Airbus 330. It took off to Banaglore at 11.45 a.m. and proceeded to New Delhi from there.
In the following days, an expert committee from Mumbai will arrive in Chennai to conduct tests on the Dreamliner.
The aircraft, said to have been purchased to save an ailing Air India, made its first trip from Chennai to Delhi on September 19 with much fanfare. The Dreamliner boasts a state-of the-art in-flight entertainment system, flat-bed recline, reading lamps, large LCD screens and enhanced gaseous filtration system that lessens dizziness and headache inside the aircraft.
L.S. Arun Baskar who travelled in the aircraft from Chennai to Delhi in November said he experienced much more comfort on the flight.
“There was less noise and that, in itself, made flying in the Dreamliner a good experience,” he said.
The aircraft also scored brownie points for its spacious and comfortable interiors.
“When I wanted to sleep, the increased leg room and foot rests made it much more comfortable,” said Satish Padmanabhan who has travelled in the Dreamliner several times.
An Air India official said technical experts would soon arrive to check the condition of all the aircraft. “Just because some flights developed technical snags doesn’t mean all of them will be faulty. But we want to rule out such a possibility in all Dreamliner aircraft, and hence, the checks,” the official said.
Keywords: Chennai airport, Air India Dreamliners grounded, DGCA, Boeing 787, U.S. Federal Aviation Authority, FAA airworthiness directive, All Nippon Airlines, Japan Airlines
The 787 is the first commercial airliner to deploy lithium ion batteries which provide twice the capacity and half the weight of NiCad batteries and can be charged back to full capacity faster than competing battery technologies. Boeing chose to use Lithium Cobalt Dioxide as the cathode in the lithium ion batteries on these planes. This is far more energetic, but; therefore, far more potentially hazardous than the Lithium Iron Phosphate cathode chemistry. If Boeing replaced the Lithium Cobalt Dioxide cathode batteries with the Lithium Iron Phosphate cathode batteries, the chance of potential fires would be greatly reduced. Li ion battery technology has been problematic and caused fires and explosions in less critical applications such as AT&T broadband cabinets & laptop computers. Li ion battery fires in the cargo compartment caused. 3 cargo plane crashes. Airbus chose to retain the pneumatic system in A350 instead of electrical system.
The obvious and logical question strikes to anyone is that "What kind
of safety check was conducted by Indian Authorities at the Boeing's
site at overseas, before giving clearance for shipping of Aircraft to
India"? It also suggests the existence of inadequacy in safety check
methodologies and quickly calls for re-visiting the testing norms in
line with International standards.
Boeing should also be pro-active in initiating the necessary checks on
the Dreamliners it had supplied to India.
Better safe than sorry.
Completely agree with AI in accommodating passengers in another aircraft.
Dreamliner flight is a scietific marvellous flight which consumed less fuel than any other flights which helps the Air India to generate substatial income. Of course there is no doubt that the Boeing will take speedy action to clear the minor technical faults.
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