Japan’s two major airlines All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have grounded all their Dreamliners after an ANA B787 was forced to make an emergency landing.
The latest incident involved an ANA domestic flight from Yamaguchi Ube to Tokyo making an emergency landing after an alarm signal on a battery was set off. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated by slide.
This was the latest in a series of incidents involving Dreamliners over the last few days both in Japan and the US.
The latest incident has led to both ANA and JAL grounding their entire Dreamliner fleets while maintenance checks are carried out. ANA currently has 17 B787s in service while JAL has seven.
Ryosei Nomura, senior manager for public relations at ANA, said the move has led to the cancellation of 26 domestic and seven international flights today (January 16). ANA has also cancelled 35 domestic flights on Thursday (January 17) while another 30 services will be operated by other types of aircraft.
Any further action will be announced pending the results of the maintenance check, said Nomura. He added that ANA currently had no plans to change its order from Boeing for another 66 B787s.
JAL said that five of its flights will be affected today with either an aircraft change or cancellation. The airline will also be making further changes to Dreamliner flights from January 17-19 including some cancellations and aircraft changes.
Japanese authorities had already announced they would be investigating fuel leaks from Dreamliners while US transport bodies are also looking into the recent incidents affecting the aircraft but have stressed that they believe the aircraft is “safe to fly”.
ana.co.jp
uk.jal.com