Chariots On Fire -- Now -- Parked Airliners; Will They Or Won't They -- Ground The Aircraft

Updates

July 13, 2013: UK agency says "no evidence" batteries related to Ethiopian Dreamliner fire

Later, 12:39 pm PDT: The original post was some hours ago. I have not read yet whether the FAA will ground the Dreamliner. It seems to me the company should take the lead on this, ground the aircraft, until this is sorted out. But I guess, as long as the chariots ignite while parked, there may be no need to ground them.

Original Post

The WSJ is reporting:

Boeing Co. shares are falling sharply Friday on word a 787 Dreamliner experienced a fire at London’s Heathrow Airport.

The stock had been up before taking a dive when word of the fire first hit. The reports say the plane was parked when the fire occurred. The causes of the fire weren’t immediately known.

WSJ is reporting no one was on board the 787, which was an Ethiopian Airlines plane, when the fire started. WSJ also is reporting that arrivals and departures at Heathrow have been suspended.

So much for that FAA-approved battery fix.

The New York Times:

Boeing said it was aware of the problem, but neither the airport nor Boeing provided any information about the cause of the fire.

The incident took place about seven weeks after the innovative 787 Dreamliners returned to the skies after being grounded for four months because of hazards with a new type of battery. One of the lithium-ion batteries caught fire on a 787 parked at a Boston Airport on Jan. 9, and another began smoking in midflight a week later, forcing the 787 to make an emergency landing in Japan.

Regulators lifted the grounding orders after Boeing came up with a plan to refit the first 50 to 60 of the new jets with more insulation between the battery cells and a new system for venting smoke or hazardous gases out of the planes. Boeing said that while the planes were grounded, it also had made changes in electrical panels that had failed on occasion since the planes were introduced into service in late 2011.

A bit of trivia and irony in the story.