LONDON ¨C As Boeing showed off its multibillion-dollar baby on the Dreamliner¡¯s promotional world tour in 2011, one quirky feature was regularly pointed out: a sleekly designed but redundant ashtray, a compliance with regulations laid down in a different age. In the darkest torments of Boeing executives during the 787¡¯s past incident-packed weeks, it may have finally appeared of use: somewhere to enjoy the cigarette of the condemned, a quiet smoke to mask the smell of burning battery.
A little over a week ago, America¡¯s government and air authorities stood shoulder to shoulder with their top exporter, Boeing, to assure the world that the plane was safe after a string of incidents from fuel leaks, windscreen cracks and battery fires. They still say it ¡ª only, right now, that no one should fly in it.
By on Jan. 16, a diagnosis of teething problems was no longer enough. The burning battery was back, and Japanese authorities said the latest incident was ¡°highly serious.¡± Corrosive fluid had leaked down through the state-of-the-art electronics below the cockpit. Hideyo Kosugi, a Japanese safety investigator surveying the All Nippon Airways 787 that had made an emergency landing at Takamatsu Airport, said the stuff had gone right through the floor.
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