Dreamliners Grounded By Japan Airlines And Al Nippon After Six Injured In Battery Fault

Japanese Airlines Ground Dreamliners After Six Injured In Battery Fault

Japan's two biggest airlines have grounded all their Boeing 787 Dreamliners after another of the new planes suffered a fault and was forced to make an emergency landing.

The Al Nippon flight to Tokyo was forced to land shortly after taking off from Yamaguchi Ube in Western Japan after smoke was seen in the cockpit and an "odd smell" was also reported, according to the ANA.

Although ANA is still investigating what caused the incident, vice president Osamu Shinobe told a press conference the battery was the same as one used in a plane that suffered an electrical fire last week at Boston's Logan airport in the US.

All Nippon Airways planes including a Boeing 787, right, are parked at Haneda Airport in Tokyo

Five people were injured, reported Reuters, and according to Bloomberg one person was taken to hospital.

The airline then made the decision to ground all of its 17 new Dreamliners and Japan airlines followed suit with its smaller fleet of seven Boeing 787s.

The Dreamliner has been beset by a series of troubling technical issues recently, despite being hailed as the most advanced and fuel efficient jet ever made when it was launched in 2011. British Airways currently have 66 of the new builds on order and there are 49 in operation, with United Airlines and Air India having six and five respectively.

However last week a brake problem on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner has caused the cancellation of an All Nippon Airways flight in Japan, the third fault detected on the jet in as many days.

The domestic flight to Tokyo was grounded in Yamaguchi after a light in the cockpit showed that the brake parts needed replacing.

Only days before a flight from Boston's Logan airport to Tokyo was cancelled after engineers found around 40 gallons of fuel had been spilled. The 178 passengers and 11 cabin crew on board had to be evacuated and while the plane was towed back to the gate, the cockpit and cabin filled with smoke, reported Sky News.

According to a spokesperson for the airline the plane departed later that afternoon, despite the Dreamliner suffering what she termed a "mechanical issue."

Japan Airlines also had to contend with an electrical fire that broke out on an empty Dreamliner jet at Boston. No one was injured in the blaze which officials claimed was caused by a battery in the auxiliary power system exploding after it overheated. A mechanic inspecting the jet after passengers had disembarked discovered smoke and raised the alarm.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, reported the Guardian.

"Even though it happened on the ground, rest assured the FAA is asking, 'what if it happened in the air?'" Carter Leake, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets in Virginia, told the BBC.

Last year a United Airlines flight made an emergency landing after an electrical problem.

In the 14 months the planes have been in operation, there have been two other incidents including a similar electrical problem and a manufacturing fault.

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