NTSB hearing on JAL 787 battery incident today, tomorrow: live, 9am Eastern Time

You can follow the NTSB hearing on the Japan Air Lines battery fire on the web here. It starts at 9am Eastern Time. Mobile phone access is also available.

7 Comments on “NTSB hearing on JAL 787 battery incident today, tomorrow: live, 9am Eastern Time

  1. Scott,

    Thanks! With the grounding lifted, do you think anything said here matters? Regards…Carter

    Carter Leake

    Senior Equity Analyst, Aerospace & Defense

    BB&T Capital Markets

    O: 804 482 7167

    M: 804 201 7114

    E: cleake@bbandtcm.com

    • Yes. NTSB will look at certification process, “how do you know what you need to know,” causes, etc. The hearing is underway as this is written.

  2. I’ll wait till the transcript/ reports are available- but IF some of the rip and read types are correct, it sounds like more PR and possibly foot in mouth by Boeing re fire or no fire.

    • http://www.abcnews4.com/story/22056738/ntsb-trying-to-close-the-case-on-boeing-issues
      a small part of the story- at least they video- quoted Mary S

      interesting re end of ‘ grace’ period !!

      By Stacy Jacobson
      sjacobson@abcnews4.com

      WASHINGTON, D.C. (WCIV) — The National Transportation Safety Board started investigative hearings in to the Boeing Dreamliner battery issues Tuesday.

      The two days of hearings are an “epilogue,” according to Former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo. She said the NTSB will “close the book” on Boeing’s 787 saga.

      “The hearing will help serve for recommendations for the future,” she said.

      The NTSB wanted to make recommendations by focusing on what Boeing and the Federal Aviation Authority did wrong. The NTSB said the airplane giant missed the mark with its testing, especially because it didn’t test for overheating. Investigators ultimately said overheating caused the problems, Schiavo said.

      “The testing was too limited. What they needed to do was test for overheating in flight, test for problems with when one cell goes, if it will spread or cascade to other cells in flight and to see if all the systems they had would protect the battery and passengers,” Schiavo said.

      The lithium-ion-battery technology will be in planes in the future, she said. Boeing has led the way for future guidelines in approving other planes that use the technology, she said.

      Meanwhile, Schiavo said the FAA was too absent through the testing process. Boeing facilitated its own safety testing for the 787.

      “Had the FAA done a deep dive and seen the testing was limited, they could have played a role and they should have played a role,” she said.

      She said now Boeing must ensure the aircraft flies without any more problems. The 787 is nearing the one year mark and that’s the end of the grace period in aviation, she said.

      The investigative hearings finish Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

    • FWIW http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/2013/B787_hearing/presentations.html

      and you can download the various presentations and history as presented

      I’m sure glad of all the emphasis on teamwork and safety and extensive testing . . .

      INHO- the PR power point ranger presentations reminded me of the typical time- shared ownership condos to be used for your vacations- except that no free dinner was offered along with a free trip to Disney land – oh wait …

    • For those that are interested in the safety issue – the nlrb reports and the
      current hearings are quite revealing

      U.S. aviation accident investigators today will resume grilling officials from
      Boeing Co. (BA) and the government over the approval of the 787’s batteries that
      failed and led to the longest U.S. grounding of a commercial plane in the jet
      age.

      National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Debbie Hersman yesterday expressed
      concerns that a Boeing official was providing incomplete information about how
      it calculated the chances its batteries on the 787 Dreamliner would overheat.

      “I think there is some obvious obfuscation here,” Hersman said at the first
      session of hearings into the approval for the plane’s lithium-ion batteries. The
      board resumes the second and final day of hearings is today.

      Hersman commented as the NTSB asked officials from Boeing, its subcontractors
      and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration about assumptions that the
      Dreamliner’s batteries were safe. Two of the batteries failed in January,
      prompting U.S. officials to pull the plane from service.

      Hersman had been questioning Mike Sinnett, a Boeing vice president and the 787’s
      chief engineer, about how the company had calculated the odds that a battery
      would overheat and emit smoke or gas. Sinnett said that a manufacturing or
      assembly defect wasn’t included in the calculation.
      ++++

      NOT including either a manufacturing or assembly defect is IMO akin to GROSS
      MISMANAGEMENT. There are indications that many similar decisions by top
      management were made over the objections of lower level employees- drivers being
      faster and cheaper

  3. http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoglia/2013/04/25/ntsb-787-battery-hearing-leaves-certification-questions-unanswered/

    …Despite sharp questioning from NTSB Chair, Deborah Hersman, both the FAA and Boeing witnesses failed to give satisfactory answers. In what was described by observers as smooth, obviously prepped performances, FAA and Boeing witnesses artfully dodged responding to why they didn’t take the time to re-test these batteries against a standard the FAA asked to be developed after a fire broke out at SecuraPlane, the Arizona manufacturer of the 787’s battery charger. The best these witnesses seemed able to muster were that the standards developed were too severe….

    YEP –Looking at the dog and pony show power point presentations was more like a PR blitz about the tremendous advantages on the new Edsel .

    Detail content IMO less than 10 percent
    BS PR content over 90 percent

    Of course they had to dumb it down for everyone- and to prevent errors and misquotes, it is kept real simple – few facts- fewer chances of revealing the lack of common sense.

    How they calculated the one in 10 million or whatever is not doubt classified and proprietary data, thus cannot be revealed. :-PP

    Lots of circular charts-

    As in the odyssey – when Odysseus blinded the cyclops – who then asked who did this-

    the answer was NOBODY did this…

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