Japan Grounds Dreamliners After Emergency Landing

ANA flight suffers most dramatic 787 problem yet
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 16, 2013 2:05 AM CST
Japan Grounds Dreamliners After Emergency Landing
An All Nippon Airways flight sits at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan after it made an emergency landing today.   (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Almost half the world's fleet of Dreamliners has been grounded after yet another incident, this time involving an emergency landing. All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines announced they were taking the new Boeing aircraft out of service after an ANA flight was forced to land after a smoke alarm went off in the cockpit, the Guardian reports. Cockpit instruments said there had been a battery malfunction. There were several minor injuries as the 129 passengers and eight crew were evacuated from the aircraft.

The ANA incident follows a host of other Dreamliner incidents in recent weeks, including a fire and two fuel leaks. The two Japanese airlines have 24 out of the 50 Dreamliners currently in service. More than 800 others have been ordered by airlines around the world, but Boeing is now facing a major image problem. "You're nearing the tipping point where they need to regard this as a serious crisis," an aviation analyst tells the BBC. "This is going to change people's perception of the aircraft if they don't act quickly." (More All Nippon Airways stories.)

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