ONE of the revolutionary new Dreamliner planes has caught fire at Heathrow Airport and another was forced to return to Manchester in fresh blows to its reputation.
Boeing faces renewed questions about the aircraft, one of which made its inaugural flight out of Glasgow airport on Monday for Cancun in Mexico, coming after they were grounded for three months this year following battery fires.
Heathrow briefly closed both runways to deal with the blaze, which broke out while the aircraft was parked at a remote stand. There were no passengers aboard. Footage showed an area on the fuselage in front of the tail that appeared to be scorched. It was not clear if the fire was related to the batteries.
General Electric, which makes the engines through its GE Aviation subsidiary, said the fire aboard the Ethiopian plane did not involve the engines.
Hours later, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner was forced to return to Manchester Airport after it developed a mid-flight technical issue. The flight left for Sanford in Orlando, Florida, yesterday afternoon, but was later spotted on a plane-tracking website circling over north Wales, understood to be dumping fuel.
The Thomson Airways luxury jet later returned to Manchester Airport and landed safely yesterday evening.
Thomson Airways has just launched the start of weekly flights on board the Dreamliner between Glasgow and Mexico as well as Florida. Thomson said it was business as usual for those flights, despite the problems.
Boeing said it was aware of the fire and had people on the ground working to understand the causes of it. The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of the fire and was in contact with Boeing.
Passengers at Glasgow Airport suffered knock-on disruption as the fire caused delays. Some flights from the United States bound for London were diverted to Glasgow and departures to Heathrow were suspended last night.
Boeing temporarily withdrew the Dreamliner from service earlier this year for modifications after concerns batteries could cause fires.
In March, Boeing chief project engineer Michael Sinnett outlined a fix centered on a new design for the lithium-ion battery system that has many layers of safeguards to prevent overheating.
Just a month later, Ethiopian Airlines was the first carrier to resume flights with Dreamliners.
Despite Boeing pledges that the Dreamliner issues had been addressed, four incidents occurred just weeks ago. Three United Airlines jets were forced to make unscheduled landings due to problems relating to break indicator and oil filters and indication systems in June.
Days later, more than 100 passengers were left stranded when a malfunctioning All Nippon Airways Dreamliner was grounded in Tokyo, Japan, after a cockpit message indicated a problem with its air-conditioning system.
Dreamliner should have entered passenger service in 2008, but the first commercial flight did not take place until October 2011.
British Airways is taking delivery of the first two of its 24 Dreamliners, while Virgin Atlantic said it remained committed to taking the first of its 16 Dreamliners in September next year.
A Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said: "We are confident Boeing and the relevant authorities are working hard to ensure the appropriate action is being taken."
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