Boeing reports safe 787 ‘Dreamliner’ test flight

{mosads}”ZA005, Boeing’s fifth 787 flight test airplane, departed from
Boeing Field at 12:32 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, Jan. 9, with a crew
of 13 on board (Boeing pilots and flight test personnel),” the company
said in a statement. “The flight lasted 2 hours and 19 minutes, landing
back at Boeing Field at 2:51 p.m. Pacific time. The crew reports that
the flight was uneventful.”

The FAA’s decision to take the 787 out of flight in January followed the fire that was sparked by a lithium-ion battery and a separate incident in which smoke was seen in-flight on another airplane that had a similar battery issue.

Other worldwide aviation agencies quickly followed the FAA’s lead, resulting in a worldwide grounding of the Dreamliner.

Image courtesy of Boeing

Boeing said the crew that was flying the 787 on its test flight “monitored the performance of the main and APU batteries.”

“Special equipment on board ZA005, which is currently the only member of the Boeing 787 flight test fleet in service, allowed the crew to observe and record detailed battery performance in normal flight conditions,” the company said.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is conducting a
separate review of the 787, is attributing the defects on the 787 batteries to
short-circuiting and accelerated temperature increases known as “thermal runaway.”

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Boeing said the information that was gathered from the 787 test flight will be used to assist the FAA’s investigation, which the agency has said will determine when the airplane will be allowed to return to service.