ANA Holdings Inc. (9202.TO, ALNPY) said Friday that its All
Nippon Airways Co. unit found "small damage" to the coated wires in
two Boeing 787 Dreamliner emergency locator transmitters, as
Europe's air-safety regulator joined its U.S. and Japanese
counterparts in recommending inspections of the devices.
ANA's discovery came as a spokeswoman for Qatar Airways said one
of its 787s had experienced what she called a "minor issue." She
declined to comment further. The Qatar Airways 787 hasn't flown
since Sunday, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24,
which is an unusually long rest for a new airplane. A Boeing Co.
(BA) spokesman referred questions to Qatar Airways.
All Nippon Airways said it found the wiring damage in an
inspection following a fire earlier this month on an Ethiopian
Airlines 787 parked at London's Heathrow Airport. British
investigators are examining the emergency transmitter as a possible
cause of the July 12 fire, which caused significant damage in the
ceiling of the jet. The transmitters, known as ELTs, are used to
find a jet in the event of a crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a directive Thursday
instructing U.S. Dreamliner operators to remove or inspect ELTs in
response to the London accident, following recommendations by the
U.K. investigators into the Heathrow fire. Japan's transport
ministry followed suit, issuing similar instructions, and on Friday
the European Aviation Safety Agency followed with its own matching
recommendation.
Boeing has delivered 70 Dreamliners to global operators since
2011. ANA and Japan Airlines Co. had already started their own
inspections ahead of the guidance from regulators. ANA said it
completed checking of its ELTs, while JAL said the work on its 10
Dreamliners is expected to be completed by Sunday.
ANA, the world's biggest operator of Boeing 787s, with 20 in its
fleet, found damage to the rubber covering the battery wires of one
of the 787's ELTs, and one replacement unit not aboard an aircraft.
ANA removed eight ELTs from Dreamliners used on Japanese domestic
flights, as well as inspecting the replacements. ANA will report
the damage to Japan's transport ministry and to the equipment
maker, Honeywell International Inc., an ANA spokesman said. It was
unclear whether the finding was related to the fire aboard the
Ethiopian Airlines 787, the spokesman said.
Spokesmen for European 787 operators Norwegian Air Shuttle SA,
LOT Polish Airlines, Thomson Airways, a unit of TUI Travel PLC and
British Airways, a unit of International Consolidated Airlines
Group SA, say that they have removed the ELTs from their aircraft.
LOT and Norwegian said the units weren't found to be damaged and
LOT and British Airways didn't detail their findings.
"We await updates from the aircraft manufacturer before we take
further action," British Airways said in a statement.
United Continental Holdings Inc., the only U.S. operator of the
787 with six in its fleet, didn't immediately respond to a request
for comment.
Separately, a person familiar with the situation said that an
incident on Thursday in which an Air India Ltd. 787 experienced
smoke from an overheating galley oven during an Indian domestic
flight was traced to an item left cooking for too long.
--Marietta Cauchi and Dan Michaels contributed to this
article
Write to Jon Ostrower at jon.ostrower@wsj.com and Yoshio
Takahashi at yoshio.takahashi@wsj.com
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