Cell Appeared To Be Leaking, Workers Noticed White Smoke Outside The Airplane

A Japan Airlines Dreamliner was grounded Tuesday when workers at Tokyo's Narita International Airport noticed white smoke coming from the airplane, and it was discovered that a battery cell appeared to be leaking.

The incident comes almost exactly a year after a battery fire at Boston Logan Airport led to the eventual grounding of the entire Dreamliner fleet for more than three months.

Reuters reports that Boeing said in a statement that it was "aware of the 787 issue that occurred Tuesday afternoon." The planemaker said the incident appeared to have involved the venting of a single battery cell, and that the "improvements made to the 787 battery system last year appear to have worked as designed."

There were no passengers on board the airplane, which was undergoing scheduled maintenance when the incident occurred.

The workers who first noticed the white smoke were in the cockpit of the airplane. When they got outside the aircraft it had dissipated. But when they returned to the cockpit, they noticed warning lights indicating an issue with the main battery and its charging system. On inspection, they discovered one of the battery's eight cells was leaking.

The FAA and NTSB are gathering data about the incident.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.faa.gov, www.boeing.com