FAA to End Grounding of Boeing's 787 Dreamliners? - East Idaho News
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FAA to End Grounding of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners?

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132730699?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1366377031925Duncan Chard/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Boeing’s grounded fleet of 787 Dreamliners may soon be allowed to fly again, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper reports the Federal Aviation Administration could move as soon as Friday to lift the three-month grounding.

U.S. and Japanese regulators took all 50 Dreamliners out of service in January after batteries on two of its flights overheated.

In one incident, a lithium-ion battery caught fire on a Japan Airlines flight parked at Boston’s Logan Airport.  In another, smoke from a battery system on an All Nippon Airways flight in Japan forced an emergency landing.

The Journal says the FAA is expected to announce that Boeing’s redesigned lithium-ion batteries are safe.  According to the newspaper’s sources, the fix includes “various internal enhancements and a new protective metal container [that] will prevent fires and automatically suck smoke or toxic fumes out of the cutting-edge plane.”

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