An All Nippon Airways flight sits at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan after it made an emergency landing Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. The flight to Tokyo from Ube in western Japan landed at the airport after a cockpit message showed battery problems, in the latest trouble for the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner.” AP/Kyodo News
TOKYO. — An All Nippon Airways flight made an emergency landing Wednesday morning in western Japan after a cockpit message showed battery problems, in the latest trouble for the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner.”
Details of the problem were still being checked, ANA spokesman Takuya Taniguchi said after the flight to Tokyo from Ube landed at the Takamatsu airport, where NTV television reported passengers had used emergency slides to exit the jet. The airport temporarily closed.
ANA’s 787s have encountered several problems in the past two weeks, though no injuries have been reported.
Taniguchi said the airline was not yet prepared to comment on the general problems that have surfaced in the 787. He could provide no further details on Wednesday’s incident, though local media reported that smoke was seen inside the aircraft.
The U.S. government is conducting a review to find out what caused a fire, a fuel leak and other worrisome incidents with Boeing’s newest and most technologically advanced airliner, though it has reassured the public it is safe to fly.
Japanese airlines have been the first to roll out the 787. Boeing has said that various technical problems are to be expected in the early days of any aircraft model.
A fire ignited Jan. 7 in the battery pack of an auxiliary power unit of a Japan Airlines 787 empty of passengers as the plane sat on the tarmac at Boston’s Logan International Airport. It took firefighters 40 minutes to put out the blaze. Later last week, a fuel leak delayed a flight from Boston to Tokyo of another Japan Airlines 787.
ANA cancelled a domestic flight to Tokyo on Jan. 9 after a computer wrongly indicated there was a problem with the Boeing 787’s brakes. Two days later, the carrier reported two new cases of problems with the aircraft, a minor fuel leak and a cracked windscreen in a 787 cockpit.
ANA has said it has no specific plan for inspections and will continue regular operations, though it said it would comply with instructions from the FAA and other authorities.