JAL Says No Safety Risk To Passengers Or The Aircraft

A piece of tape covering two small holes in a Dreamliner battery encasement caused an anomalous reading aboard a JAL Dreamliner Sunday, but the airline said that the incident posed no safety risk to any passengers or the airplane.

A JAL spokesman said that while Boeing workers were making modifications to the battery system on one of the carrier's 787s, two small holes "about the size of the tip of a Sharpie pen" remained covered with tape. Those holes are part of the ventilation system that allows air flow inside the battery casing and is designed to help prevent overheating. "Because the holes were covered, JAL engineers detected that the air pressure level inside and outside the stainless steel container housing the battery was different," the spokesman said, according to a Wall Street Journal report relayed by USA Today.

The WSJ reports that the incident would normally have been considered minor, but with battery issues grounding the entire fleet of Dreamliners for four months this year carriers are particularly sensitive to them right now. The Japan Times reports that the airline temporarily grounded the airplane until the oversight was discovered.

The JAL spokesman said there was no issue with the actual battery.

(JAL Dreamliner image from file)

FMI: www.jal.com