I guess it’s good news for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner that has made its first commercial flight since the whole fleet was grounded this past January. This was a result of two separate incidents involving the lithium-ion batteries equipped on the planes.
Ethiopian Airlines flight 801, which departed Addis Ababa at 9:45AM local time and arrived in Nairobi at 12:38PM, made the trip without incident. The 787 used for the trip is one of four in the airline’s fleet, and it is the first that has successfully been retrofitted with the battery system approved by the FAA last week.
According to the AFP, Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters that work is underway to apply the battery fix to the company’s other three Dreamliners. Other companies are also working on bringing their 787s back to the skies: Japanese airline ANA, which has the largest fleet of 787s in the world, is scheduled to conduct a test flight tomorrow in preparation for bringing its planes back into service. United Airlines, meanwhile, has scheduled commercial Dreamliner flights beginning on May 31st.
