Europe & US order grounding of Dreamliners
A frightening experience for Japanese passengers – having to make a sharp exit from their Dreamliner plane that's had to make an emergency landing. It was a domestic flight which caused yet another headache for executives at Boeing who produce the 787 planes.
Investigators on the ground checked the plane and reckon it could have been due a battery failure. A similar battery caused a fire on a US plane last week. That news caused two of Japan's major airlines to ground all Dreamliner flights indefinitely while enquiries continue.
In turn, the air safety authorities in America (the FAA) and those in Europe have asked all airlines to do the same until Boeing resolves the potentially dangerous safety issues. And the news has worried the Chilean and Indian governments, so much that they've both followed suit:
India's Aviation Minister, Ajit Singhsays "Boeing has to come up with a plan for FAA to test all their electrical systems and batteries and so when that plan comes up we will also test them. But basically first FAA has to approve that they are safe to fly."
The planes have been tipped as the future of commercial aviation as we know it, with more and more people flying, the Dreamliner has the capacity for 800 passengers and 50 have been in use worldwide so far. Boeing denies the huge demand and a rush to fulfil orders for 850 planes – which cost around £129 million each - have been at the expense of safety.