The US National Transportation Safety Board will today make public its latest findings on the battery fire that grounded a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, even though it was "weeks away" from completing its investigation, board chairman Deborah Hersman said yesterday.
"We will talk about special conditions that were put into effect at the time when the Dreamliner was certified," Hersman said.
"When an aircraft is certified it gets locked into the standards that are in existence at the time.
"So the question . is whether, as time goes on . through the life of the aircraft, do they fly with new standards?" Hersman said.
She said the Dreamliner investigation was a priority for her board and that it was "all hands on deck" in the fast-tracked effort to find the cause of the battery fire last month.
The board has been looking at the risks associated with lithium-ion batteries for some time and had recommended strategies to reduce the risks, she said.
"I would not want to categorically say that these batteries are not safe. With any new technology, any new design, there are going to be some inherent risks. The important thing is to mitigate them," she said.
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