Canada and Australia restrict Boeing 787 operations over software glitch

Published 2:06 pm Monday, December 14, 2015

EVERETT — Aviation agencies in Canada and Australia have restricted Boeing 787 operations due to a software glitch that has incorrectly reported a plane’s location to air traffic controllers on at least five occasions, reports Flightglobal’s Stephen Trimble.

Boeing said the glitch is not a safety concern. Nonetheless, the company expects to soon send instructions on how to fix the problem to 787 operators, according to a report by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The aerospace giant has already fixed the problem in the factory, so new Dreamliners are unaffected. Flightglobal does not say when the problem was resolved in the factory.

Air traffic controllers in Canada first noticed the problem on July 1, 2014, when a 787 appeared on controllers’ screens to go off course by 38 nautical miles or 43.5 miles. The plane then suddenly appeared back on course.

Location-reporting software was sometimes sending partial information which was filled in with data sent seconds earlier. In rare circumstances, that could cause the plane’s location to be erroneously reported, Trimble writes.

Aviation agencies in Canada and Australia “blacklisted” 787s, though the term is harsher than the effect. Canada required 787s to maintain their distance from other aircraft based on standards for planes without the advanced location-reporting equipment, called automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) transponders. Australia only put symbolic restrictions on 787s on the ground at three of the country’s airports, according to Flightglobal.

ADS-B uses satellites to determine a plane’s position, which it regularly broadcasts. Air traffic control systems can then track the airplane.

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.