Chariots on Fire: First Volts, Now Dreamliners

Updates

January 16, 2013: FAA grounds all Dreamliners; cites lithium batteries as concern; this, by the way, has implications for vehicles with lithium batteries

Original Post

Over a year ago, Don suggested a new name for the phenomenon of Volts catching on fire: chariots on fire. It appears that "chariots on fire" may not be limited to earthbound transportation. Although

• details have not been released;
• the incident is still under investigation; and,
• no one is yet saying the fire was caused by the lithium batteries; 

the video is compelling, and the location of the fire in the Dreamliner was interesting: in a compartment where lithium batteries were located.

When the story first broke yesterday, it was not made immediately clear that the plane had just landed 30 minutes earlier at Boston following a fairly long flight from ... Tokyo.

The fire broke out on an empty Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet in Boston's Logan Airport after a non-stop flight from Tokyo, prompting more safety concerns about the new plane since its 2011 release.

The incident occurred Monday morning when an electrical fire broke out on board the Japan Airlines jet 30 minutes after 173 passengers and 11 crew members exited the plane. The Massachusetts Port Authority's fire chief, Bob Donahue, said the fire began in a battery pack for the plane's auxiliary power unit, which runs the jet's electrical systems when it's not getting power from its engines. 

So, yes, the plane was empty, but thirty minutes earlier, it was not. Wow.