Electrical fire forces emergency landing of 787 test plane

The Seattle Times ^ | 11/9/2010 | Dominic Gates

[Yossarian]

A serious in-flight fire in the electric equipment bay of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight test plane forced an emergency landing in Laredo, Texas, Tuesday. All aboard were safely evacuated on slides.

The fire affected the cockpit controls and the jet lost its primary flight displays and its auto-throttle, according to a person familiar with the incident. The flight and engine controls, which on the Dreamliner are all-electric, weren't fully functional, this person said.

A small emergency power generator called the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) that typically kicks in only when both primary and auxiliary power sources are lost was automatically deployed. The RAT — a device like a small dynamo that drops down from the fuselage and generates power from the air flowing past the aircraft — provides sufficient power for flight controls and other vital systems in an emergency.

The smoke in the back of the cabin of Dreamliner No. 2, where a team of flight technicians sat at computer workstations monitoring the flight data, was first detected on approach to the Laredo airport after six hours of flying.

As the incident escalated, the pilot declared an emergency, landed the plane, and activated the emergency slides.

(SNIP)

[Erasmus]

Building aircraft is much much more complex than building a toaster.

Under these particular circumstances, a slightly indelicate comparison.

≤)8^)

[TalonDJ]

There are breakers in the avionics too. Just because the test equipment had fuses does not mean it was not the source. As an avionics engineer that has actually worked on 787 systems my bet would also be on the test equipment. It could be almost anywhere there. That is why you test.

If I was still at my old company I would be able to get more details on what happened.

[Yo-Yo]

From the Leeham News and Commentary website:

There are plenty of news stories accessible through Google, so we won’t recap the incident here.

Here’s what we can add to the story at this time (06:30 AM PST, Nov. 10); we’ll update as needed.

• We’ve been told by a person familiar with the details of the incident that the fire in the aft electronic bay cause a lot of damage to the surrounding composite structure. The bay is located next to the wing box.
• Flightblogger and The Seattle Times reported that the flight instruments failed and the Ram Air Turbine deployed; in a statement released by Boeing about midnight Seattle time Tuesday, Boeing denied that the instruments failed but did not address whether the RAT deployed.
• Our source told us early Tuesday evening that there was a “cascading” series of electronic failures that redundancies failed to prevent. This is not necessarily inconsistent with Boeing’s midnight statement. These cascading failures, we were told, caused Boeing to ground the rest of the test fleet until Boeing has an understanding of the event. An hour and a half later, Flightblogger reported the test fleet had been grounded; Boeing has yet to confirm this.
• In our role as aviation consultant to KIRO TV (CBS, Seattle), we predicted Tuesday during the early evening newscasts that the incident will be serious enough to cause a delay in the flight test program and most likely a new delay in first delivery, because the investigation into the cause of the first–even if it identifies the cause fairly quickly–may take long enough to effect a fix to induce new delays.
• Dominic Gates in The Seattle Times, citing an unidentified source, said one possible cause could be an overheated electronics box that would be identified and replaced quickly. This may or may not be correct, but even if is, this may not be the end of it. Cooling the electronic bays was an early and persistent problem because of the heat generated by the all-electric airplane and cooling the bays was one of those vexing problems during the development of the airplane. If cooling proves to be insufficient and a contributor to the cause of the fire, who knows what redesign might be required. It is important to emphasis here that the unidentified source in Gates’ story is speculating and so are we.

[Yo-Yo]

From the Leeham News and Commentary website:

There are plenty of news stories accessible through Google, so we won’t recap the incident here.

Here’s what we can add to the story at this time (06:30 AM PST, Nov. 10); we’ll update as needed.

• We’ve been told by a person familiar with the details of the incident that the fire in the aft electronic bay cause a lot of damage to the surrounding composite structure. The bay is located next to the wing box.
• Flightblogger and The Seattle Times reported that the flight instruments failed and the Ram Air Turbine deployed; in a statement released by Boeing about midnight Seattle time Tuesday, Boeing denied that the instruments failed but did not address whether the RAT deployed.
• Our source told us early Tuesday evening that there was a “cascading” series of electronic failures that redundancies failed to prevent. This is not necessarily inconsistent with Boeing’s midnight statement. These cascading failures, we were told, caused Boeing to ground the rest of the test fleet until Boeing has an understanding of the event. An hour and a half later, Flightblogger reported the test fleet had been grounded; Boeing has yet to confirm this.
• In our role as aviation consultant to KIRO TV (CBS, Seattle), we predicted Tuesday during the early evening newscasts that the incident will be serious enough to cause a delay in the flight test program and most likely a new delay in first delivery, because the investigation into the cause of the first–even if it identifies the cause fairly quickly–may take long enough to effect a fix to induce new delays.
• Dominic Gates in The Seattle Times, citing an unidentified source, said one possible cause could be an overheated electronics box that would be identified and replaced quickly. This may or may not be correct, but even if is, this may not be the end of it. Cooling the electronic bays was an early and persistent problem because of the heat generated by the all-electric airplane and cooling the bays was one of those vexing problems during the development of the airplane. If cooling proves to be insufficient and a contributor to the cause of the fire, who knows what redesign might be required. It is important to emphasis here that the unidentified source in Gates’ story is speculating and so are we.

[TXnMA]

Yeah -- but why did the landing gear keep breaking?

Are you sure you didn't mean, "brakes"?

[upcountryhorseman]

I'm worried about the new material used on wings and fuselage. They say it spalls off where holes occur.

[PAR35]

Now they know what needs to be fixed.

Doesn't sound like it. Now they know they have a big problem. In time, they may know what needs to be fixed.

[Perdogg]

Gee, I wonder where all the “if it ain’t Boeing” crowd are now?

[Perdogg]

that’s partially true. Most planes are designed using VDC. There is no excuse for this.