Two major airlines from Japan said on January 30, 2013, that they have replaced several batteries in their Dreamliner aircraft after experiencing problems worldwide, which resulted in the grounding of the flagship airplane. A spokesperson from All Nippon Airways revealed that 10 batteries on its fleet have been replaced in all.
A representative from Japan Airlines (JAL) said that quite a few batteries needed to be changed. Since the problems started, the lithium-ion batteries have been the centre of a probe into the problems arising out of the Dreamliner aircraft. In many instances, fire was reported on the aircraft which raised questions over the safety of passengers.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) had to replace batteries around ten times after a January 16, 2013 emergency landing of one of its flights, which was caused due to smoke. This was reportedly linked to the powerpack. ANA started operating Boeing 787’s in the month of November 2011 and had to replace batteries after only a week, while others lasted for a month. In some cases the main powerpack was just partially charged, while in other cases an auxiliary power unit failed to begin.
A total of ten replacements occurred in 2012, out of which two were in May, four in the month of December, two in November and two in the month of December 2012.
