Boeing’s engineers in Addis to fix Dreamliners

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Ethiopian Boeing 787Boeing’s senior engineers arrived in Addis Ababa on Monday to upgrade Ethiopian Airline’s Dreamliner aircraft.

Following the fire accidents on board Dreamliner aircraft the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered all carriers operating the Dreamliner fleet to ground their B787 aircraft in mid-January. Boeing’s engineers presumed that the fire accidents were caused by the overheating of the lithium-ion battery of the aircraft.

The launch customers of the Dreamliner aircraft, including Ethiopian Airlines, were forced to ground their B787 fleet for the past three months. Officials of FAA were expected to approve the modification work on the batteries of the Dreamliner on Monday. Consequently, 30 senior engineers and technicians of Boeing arrived in Addis Ababa to fix the battery of Ethiopian Dreamliners. However, the FAA postponed its approval for next week.

Executives of Ethiopian Airlines told The Reporter that since FAA has postponed the announcement, Boeing’s technical team was unable to commence work on the batteries. FAA is now expected to announce its approval next week. Until then Boeing’s technical team is upgrading other parts of Ethiopian Dreamliners as of last Tuesday.  Read more