JAL 787 fire @Logan today
 

Here's a report on the fire.
No passengers or crew were on board at the time. Hoping this doesn't affect anyone's upcoming travel plans.

http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01...yyI/story.html

Hmmm: "the latest of several electrical and mechanical mishaps involving the much-anticipated high-tech plane known as the Dreamliner."

Maybe it's not ready for prime time?

i have reservations on that flight for next fall... i hope they have all the electrical problems worked out on them before then

Bob, hopefully I'll test 787 for you in the spring. Maybe I should be renamed sassy_guinea pig!

Having slept for much of this flight when flying to Tokyo and back last year, I do not recall whether or not the aircraft crashed and burned en route.

Did you walk in your sleep Don and do something to the batteries?

It did go down....this is Don's after life

Aloha!

thank god, he won't be coming to GTG's in his bath robe anymore

That "bath robe" is what you have to wear, all of the time, when you are in Japan, or on a Japanese aeroplane.

Today the Dreamliner was "fixed", and made it to the end of the runway before they turned back. Oil leak. They better get this thing up and running properly. Not good for Boeing .

can i borrow yours?? will it fit?

I was about to book my JAL non stop flight on the Dreamliner, but have decided to wait a while before doing so. I want to be sure it is truly a non stop flight, and not one that will need to makes several stops for fixups, before it even leaves Logan Airport. lol It's probably being a little overcautious, but they are not the only airline that flies to Japan.

shelleyk, when is your trip?

I'm hoping they get this fixed soon. The turning back at the end of the runway thing gives me nightmares.
On the bright side we're only taking the Dreamliner on the return so at least we would be stuck at Narita rather than delayed outbound.

I was thinking of going in April, but I am now leaning toward Oct. No hotels have been booked and no definite plans have been made. I'd like to take the non stop to Japan, so I think I'll just wait and see how things develop. I'm sure Boeing will want to fix the problems ASAP as their stock went down today, probably because of the Dreamliner problems. Sassy-cat, when are you going?

<<Today the Dreamliner was "fixed", and made it to the end of the runway before they turned back. Oil leak. >>

My understanding is that it was a different 787 that had the oil problem, I believe the oil problem was fixed and it took off later

Shelleyk, I'm going in April. Flights and hotels mostly booked. Still undecided on where to stay one night.
October or November would probably have been my first choice but had to work around school vacation.

Geordie, that sounds a little more encouraging.

Problem is that with a new airplane like the 787, any problem is likely to be picked up by the press. And when there's a delay 2 days in a row, OMG! If any of these issues had happened in an older model (and such things do, all the time), it would have caused little or no notice.

In fact, though, the JAL BOS-NRT flight has a pretty decent on-time record. I went to FlightAware and looked at the history since mid-November. Since November 15, I counted 4 times that the flight was delayed for an hour or more:
Nov 22 - delayed 1:35
Dec 4 - 5:30
Dec 8 - 1:30
Dec 23 - 1:04

For comparison's sake, and also to take a shot at the hated United Airlines, I looked at the same dates for United flight from SFO to Seoul (UA 893), flown by the trusty 747:
Nov 15 - delayed 1:06
Dec 1 - 2:53
Dec 22 - 1:55
Dec 23 - 1:20
Dec 26 - 2:10
Jan 5 - 1:37

It's not unusual for Trans-Pacific flights, especially to have more delays than shorter flights, as there's a much lower tolerance for things that might not be working properly.

I would have no hesitation in booking the BOS-NRT flight on JAL. It's a good airline, and saving several hours en route is a big benefit.

Latest on this sounds like Boeing is having a very bad week then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20950287

Boeing has instigated a review of the Dreamliner but will not take the planes out of service during the process.

I think a review is a sound idea and hope that if there are any teething problems with the new planes they can be swiftly addressed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20988117

Boeing didn't instigate it, the US regulator it