On Jan 14th 2014 a JAL Japan Airlines Boeing 787-800, registration JA822J, was parked at the apron of Tokyo's Narita airport and was being prepared for departure for flight JL-707 to Bangkok (Thailand) scheduled about two hours later, when white smoke was observed from the aircraft's main battery, the battery was found overheated, its safety valve opened and electrolyte fluid leaking from the battery. No further damage is being reported, the aircraft was removed from service. A replacement Boeing 787-800 registration JA829J operated the flight departing with a delay of 7 minutes and arriving on schedule. Boeing tweeted that the aircraft was in maintenance, a single cell vented resulting in a smoke event, the new safe guards worked as planned. The battery suffered a fault in the charger and battery. The airline stated: "A maintenance personnel in the cockpit found that the white smoke was wafting outside of the window and that the message which indicated the possibility of main battery system failure was displayed on the cockpit display during departure preparation. The inspection of the battery case inside the battery enclosure revealed that the safety pressure relief valve (which opens in case that the cell inside pressure rises) of one cell of the eight cells opened. JAL707 departed by another Boeing 787 almost on time." This new ground incident comes a few days after both NTSB and JTSB announced the investigations into the thermal runaways of the APU and main battery in Takamatsu and Boston have been finished and the final reports are being prepared for release later in 2014.
It's an oldie, delivered before the grounding. 25 March 2012
