The legacy carriers may have downsized at Boston Logan Airport, but it now seems clear that the departures simply created opportunities for competitors. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
A Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo’s Narita Airport returned to Boston’s Logan Airport on Thursday because of a possible fuel pump issue on the Boeing 787 aircraft.
It’s the latest trouble for the new Dreamliner aircraft after a lithium ion battery problem grounded the fleet in January and a fire erupted on an empty Ethiopian Airlines plane parked at Britain’s Heathrow Airport last week.
Flight 007 returned to Boston “as a standard precautionary measure” to check out a maintenance message indicator showing the possible fuel pump problem and landed safely, Japan Airlines spokeswoman Carol Anderson said.
The pilot didn’t declare an emergency, and the aircraft burned off fuel before landing, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac said.
The plane left for Tokyo just before 1 p.m. Thursday for a flight of nearly 14 hours. It returned just before 6:30 p.m.
The flight was canceled, and passengers were being put on other flights.
One of two battery fires that grounded the 787s for three months broke out on a Japan Airlines plane at Logan in January after passengers had exited. The next day, another Japan Airlines 787 leaked 40 gallons of fuel at Logan. The airline said an open valve caused a tank to overflow through a vent.
The 787 is the newest and highest-profile plane from Chicago-based Boeing Co., which has said it stands behind its safety and overall integrity. The 787 is assembled at Boeing plants in Everett, Wash., and North Charleston, S.C.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Kevin Spak 
With tensions running high in a city with good reason to be edgy, two flights at Boston’s Logan Airport raised concerns this morning: A US Airways flight from Philadelphia was evacuated soon after landing in Boston after a suspicious bag was found, NBC 10 Philadelphia reports. State police tell CBS…
From: http://www.newser.com/story/166329/on-edge-boston-takes-issue-with-2-flights.html
By Alex Dumortier, CFA, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
On the back of yesterday’s minor gains, stocks opened lower this morning, with the S&P 500
and the narrower, price-weighted Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.2% and 0.21%, respectively, as of 10:05 a.m. EDT.
Things are looking up for Boeing
The good news keeps on coming for investors in Dow component Boeing . Yesterday, I highlighted a report according to which the company has snagged a massive order for 200 aircraft worth $18 billion from budget airline Ryanair. Right after that, the Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing’s measures to address the overheating problem of the 787 Dreamliner’s lithium-ion batteries, which caused the federal regulator to ground the aircraft following a series of incidents in January.
The approval means that test flights can begin, with Boeing targeting a resumption of commercial flights within three to four weeks — which is consistent with reports that surfaced last month regarding the company’s expectations.
If this schedule holds up, I’ll end up with egg on my face. In February, I wrote: “An early April reinstatement date looks optimistic. … Boeing was repeatedly over-optimistic when it came to the delivery date of the 787; investors can expect further delays in the planes’ (and the shares’) current flight schedule.”
Nevertheless, something still doesn’t sit right with me. If you look at Boeing’s proposed “fix,” it consists of:
Improving insulation between battery cells in order to prevent a short-circuit in one cell from igniting the entire unit.
Putting the battery in a fire-resistant box.
Allowing smoke from any overheating to vent outside the aircraft.
Where is the fix? These measures address the effects of the problem, not its cause. Indeed, the latter is, at this stage, impossible to resolve. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the National Transportation Safety Board has so far been unable to determine the root cause of the lithium-ion battery fire on a parked 787 at Boston’s Logan Airport. According to an NTSB report released last week, the battery in that incident was glowing with heat that had melted many of its most resistant components. In that context, I’m not sure that yesterday’s FAA decision is consistent with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s January pledge that “those planes aren’t going to fly until we are 1,000% sure that they are safe to fly.”
With great opportunity comes great responsibility. For Boeing, which is a major player in a multitrillion-dollar market, the opportunity is massive. However, the company’s execution problems and emerging competitors have investors wondering whether Boeing will live up to its shareholder responsibilities. In this premium research report, two of the Fool’s best industrial-sector minds have collaborated to provide investors with the must-know info on Boeing. They’ll update the report as key news hits, so be sure to claim a copy today by clicking here now.
A behemoth storm packing hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions swept through the Northeast on Saturday, dumping more than 2 feet of snow on New England and knocking out power to 650,000 customers in the region.
More than 28 inches of snow had fallen on central Connecticut by early Saturday, and areas of southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire notched 2 feet or more of snow — with more falling. Airlines scratched more than 5,300 flights through Saturday, and New York City’s three major airports and Boston’s Logan Airport closed.
The wind-whipped snowstorm mercifully arrived at the start of a weekend, which meant fewer cars on the road and extra time for sanitation crews to clear the mess before commuters in the New York-to-Boston region of roughly 25 million people have to go back to work. But it could also mean a weekend cooped up indoors.
For a group of stranded European business travelers, it meant making the best of downtime in a hotel restaurant Friday night in downtown Boston, where snow blew outside and drifted several inches deep on the sidewalks.
The six Santander bank employees found their flights back to Spain canceled, and they gave up on seeing the city or having dinner out.
“We are not believing it,” said Tommaso Memeghini, 29, an Italian who lives in Barcelona. “We were told it may be the biggest snowstorm in the last 20 years.”
The National Weather Service says up to 3 feet of snow is expected in Boston, threatening the city’s 2003 record of 27.6 inches.
In heavily Catholic Boston, the archdiocese urged parishioners to be prudent about attending Sunday Mass and reminded them that, under church law, the obligation “does not apply when there is grave difficulty in fulfilling this obligation.”
Halfway through what had been a mild winter across the Northeast, blizzard warnings were posted from parts of New Jersey to Maine. The National Weather Service said Boston could get close to 3 feet of snow by Saturday evening, while most of Rhode Island could receive more than 2 feet, most of it falling overnight Friday into Saturday. Connecticut was bracing for 2 feet, and New York City was expecting as much as 14 inches.
Early snowfall was blamed for a 19-car pileup in Cumberland, Maine, that caused …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
The battery that caught fire in a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 in Boston earlier this month was not overcharged, but government investigators said there could still be problems with wiring or other charging components.
An examination of the flight data recorder indicated that the battery didn’t exceed its designed voltage of 32 volts, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement.
NTSB investigators are continuing to look at the battery system. They plan to meet Tuesday with officials from Securaplane Technologies Inc., manufacturer of the charger for the 787s lithium ion batteries, at the company’s headquarters in Tucson, Arizona, said Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the board.
“Potentially there could be some other charging issue,” Nantel said. “We’re not prepared to say there was no charging issue.”
Even though it appears the voltage limit wasn’t exceeded in the case of the Japan Airlines 787 battery that caught fire on Jan. 7 in Boston, it’s possible that the battery failures in that plane and in an All Nippon Airways plane that made an emergency landing in Japan last week may be due to a charging problem, according to John Goglia, a former NTSB board member and aviation safety expert.
Too much current flowing too fast into a battery can overwhelm the battery, causing it to short-circuit and overheat even if the battery’s voltage remains within its design limit, he said.
“The battery is like a big sponge,” Goglia said. “You can feed it with an eye dropper or you can feed it with a garden hose. If allowed, it will soak up everything it can from the garden hose until it destroys itself.”
There are so many redundancies and safeguards in aviation that when an accident or mishap occurs, it almost always is the result of a chain of events rather than a single failure, he said.
The Japan Airlines plane caught fire Jan. 7 while it was sitting on the tarmac at Boston’s Logan Airport. In a separate incident on Jan. 16, an ANA flight made an emergency landing in western Japan after a cockpit message warned of battery problems and a burning smell was detected in the cockpit and cabin. An investigator in Japan said Friday that the burned insides of the plane’s lithium ion battery show the battery received voltage in excess of its design limits.
Since then, all 50 787s that Boeing has delivered to airlines’ fleets have been grounded, and the manufacturer has halted deliveries of new planes until it can address the electrical problems.
The batteries in two incidents “had a thermal overrun because they short-circuited,” Goglia said. “The question is whether it was a manufacturing flaw in the battery or whether it was induced by battery charging.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Kevin Spak 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner suffered a second technical malfunction in as many days at Boston’s Logan Airport after a fuel leak forced a Japan Air plane to return to its gate. The stock fell hard, but it may be early to make a call just yet.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
