National Transportation Safety Board to Join Japanese Probe of Boeing 787 Battery Failure: Lithium-Ion Battery Aboard Parked Japan Airlines Jet Fails

The Wall Street Journal

By Jon Ostrower

Jan. 15, 2014 4:34 p.m. ET

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday it would join Japanese authorities investigating the failure of a lithium-ion battery aboard a parked Japan Airlines Co. Boeing 787.

The NTSB will join an inquiry lead by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau into the failure, which came nearly a year after the advanced jet was grounded for 3 ½ months following twin incidents involving burning batteries on Dreamliners operated by Japanese airlines.

The NTSB had said on Tuesday it was ready to assist Japanese authorities, while the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was helping with the investigation.

No one was hurt in Tuesday's incident at Narita Airport in Tokyo, in which a mechanic first saw smoke and then discovered that a relief port had vented on one of the plane's lithium-ion battery cells, spewing liquid inside the battery container.

Boeing said it is helping with the investigation, and that the incident appeared to show that modifications it made to the 787's battery systems last year worked as intended.

Source:   http://online.wsj.com