The Boeing Co.’s 787 jet faced its first hiccup on a commercial flight Sunday, less than a week since the Dreamliner began carrying paying passengers on regular routes.
All Nippon Airways pilots couldn’t automatically lower the Dreamliner’s landing gear during a flight from Tokyo to Okayama, Japan. The pilots manually lowered the gear. The Dreamliner was able to land safely; no passenger injuries were reported.
The 787 involved in the incident already has returned to service after maintenance, said Lori Gunter, Boeing spokeswoman. The jet maker is assisting ANA, the 787’s launch customer, in investigating what caused the technical glitch.
Boeing delivered the first 787 to ANA in late September. The carrier took delivery of the second Dreamliner a few days later. Boeing was more than three years behind schedule delivering the Dreamliner because of complications with the jet’s production and global supply chain.
ANA flew its Dreamliner on its maiden flight Oct. 26 between Tokyo and Hong Kong as part of a series of special charter flights. The airline put the 787 into regular service on Nov. 1. ANA plans to put the 787 on a route between Tokyo and Beijing in the near future before flying the Dreamliner on a route between Tokyo and Frankfurt, Germany.
Boeing’s new 787 is made mostly of carbon-fiber composite material. The Chicago-based company says its widebody jet will save airlines 20 percent in fuel costs compared to similar sized aircraft.
ANA is the only airline operating 787s so far. Through the end of October, Boeing has 819 unfilled orders for its popular jet.
The 787 incident comes less than a week after a Lot Polish Airlines pilot safely landed a Boeing 767 after its landing gear failed to deploy. None of the passengers on the flight from Newark, N.J. to Warsaw, Poland were injured.
New aircraft go through hundreds of hours of testing and government review before passengers are allowed onboard. Still, problems do arise on new and older planes.
In November 2010, one of the four engines on the relatively-new Airbus A380 failed during a Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney. Shortly after takeoff, there was a loud bang, fire shot out the back of the engine and shredded metal was scattered below. The world’s largest passenger plane safely made an emergency landing in Singapore. The problem was traced to an oil leak in the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine, which debuted on the A380.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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