A Dreamliner test flight with top Boeing and All Nippon Airways’ executives aboard landed at a Tokyo airport on Sunday, the carrier said, three months after the worldwide fleet of 787s was grounded.
The test flight by ANA, one of largest customers of the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, came a day after Ethiopian Airlines became the first carrier to resume flying the 787s that have been grounded worldwide since January due to battery problems. ANA chairman Shinichiro Ito and Boeing chief executive Ray Conner were aboard the aircraft which landed back in Tokyo at around 11am after a two-hour flight as Boeing and ANA seek to reassure passengers that the planes are safe. ANA has the world’s largest fleet of the next-generation planes and the presence of both executives underscores their desire to put the damaging crisis behind them.
The US Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators grounded the worldwide Dreamliner fleet in mid-January after failures of the lithium-ion batteries on the jetliner caused a fire on board one parked plane in Boston and forced the emergency landing of an ANA-operated aircraft in Japan.
The test flight by ANA, one of largest customers of the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, came a day after Ethiopian Airlines became the first carrier to resume flying the 787s that have been grounded worldwide since January due to battery problems. ANA chairman Shinichiro Ito and Boeing chief executive Ray Conner were aboard the aircraft which landed back in Tokyo at around 11am after a two-hour flight as Boeing and ANA seek to reassure passengers that the planes are safe. ANA has the world’s largest fleet of the next-generation planes and the presence of both executives underscores their desire to put the damaging crisis behind them.
The US Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators grounded the worldwide Dreamliner fleet in mid-January after failures of the lithium-ion batteries on the jetliner caused a fire on board one parked plane in Boston and forced the emergency landing of an ANA-operated aircraft in Japan.