Japan grounds Dreamliners

Japan’s two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s yesterday after a Dreamliner jet made an emergency landing.

Boeing’s shares fell 3.3% as analysts began to lose some of their conviction in the stock, which had held up relatively well despite the dozen or so issues with the plane in the last six weeks.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) said that instruments aboard a domestic flight indicated a battery error.

Shigeru Takano of the Civil Aviation Bureau said a second warning light indicated smoke.

The incident yesterday, described by a transport ministry official as “highly serious” — language used in international safety circles as indicating there could have been an accident — is the latest mishap to hit the world’s first mainly carbon- composite airliner in recent days.

ANA, which said the battery in the forward cargo hold was the same lithium-ion type as one involved in a fire on another Dreamliner at a US airport last week, grounded all 17 of its 787s. Japan Airlines suspended its 787 flights scheduled for yesterday and today.

The two airlines, which operate about half of the 50 Dreamliners delivered to date, said they would decide today whether to resume flights tomorrow.

Reuters