Airplane Developed An Electrical Problem Similar To One That Cropped Up On A UCH 787

Qatar Airways says it has been forced to ground one of its three Dreamliners because of an electrical problem that forced them to take the jet out of service. A similar problem was discovered recently in a 787 belonging to United Continental Holdings.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker was not pleased. He said in an interview at Heathrow in London Thursday that the airline would "demand compensation from Boeing," according to a report from Reuters.

The airplane was grounded December 9th. Al Baker said that the airplane would not fly until Boeing had repaired the aircraft, which the company said it was working to get done. But the planemaker said it was not certain that the issue was with a power generator, as was the case with a Dreamliner belonging to United Continental which was forced to make an emergency landing December 4 when one of the three units on board failed.

Boeing said it would "evaluate the findings in Qatar" to get to the root cause of the problem before determining what the next steps should be.

Al Baker said that he was concerned that having similar problems occur on such new airplanes could be a symptom of wider problems with the jet. He blamed the Dreamliner's delays for slowing the airline's expansion plans.

Qatar Airways has 60 Dreamliners on order, with the next deliveries scheduled for December 19th.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.boeing.com