Why is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounded?

On January 17th, 2013, the FAA ordered the entire 787 fleet across all airlines to be grounded, and the NTSB launched an investigation. The culprit was eventually identified as a lithium-ion battery. A cell within the battery was believed to have short-circuited, causing what is known as a thermal runaway.



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While the 787 Dreamliners have not been grounded, the FAA had ordered a halt to deliveries of the widebody jet between May of 2021 and July of 2022 as it looked into questions about quality control during its assembly process.

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They were part of a group of 35 Boeing 787s that were grounded because of problems with their engine blades, which were cracking or corroding prematurely.

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Boeing has been forced to halt deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner once again, just months after it resumed deliveries to customers following a year-long halt.

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Incredibly safe. The 787–8, —9 & —10 are as safe as it's going to get in aviation. The issue with the 787 spacing issues — where gaps are larger than 0.005 inches — is a fatigue and cycles related issue. In normal manufacturing, their are manufacturing tolerances to account for slight differences in part builds.

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While the 787 Dreamliners have not been grounded, the FAA had ordered a halt to deliveries of the widebody jet between May of 2021 and July of 2022 as it looked into questions about quality control during its assembly process.

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The latest announcement brings back memories of the delivery drought that affected Boeing's 787s not too long ago. Deliveries of the Boeing 787 were stopped by the FAA in May 2021 after production flaws surfaced and concerns over Boeing's inspection methods.

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The Dreamliner is a successful aircraft, still in production with more than 1600 delivered or on order. The list price for a new Boeing 787-8 is $239 million dollars. Yet even as international travel opens again for these long-range aircraft, two Dreamliners barely ten years old are waiting for the wrecker's ball.

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Excellent design choices all around. Better sleep on long flights. Because the 787 is pressurized at about 6,000 feet rather than 8,000 feet, you'll breathe easier. More oxygen in your lungs means better sleep, less chance of headache, no difficulty breathing (flying at altitude is like sleeping at a ski resort).

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The 787 was designed to be the first production airliner with the fuselage comprising one-piece composite barrel sections instead of the multiple aluminum sheets and some 50,000 fasteners used on existing aircraft. Boeing selected two new engines to power the 787, the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 and General Electric GEnx.

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• Because the 787 is pressurized at about 6,000 feet rather than 8,000 feet, you'll breathe easier. More oxygen in your lungs means better sleep, less chance of headache, no difficulty breathing (flying at altitude is like sleeping at a ski resort).

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Therefore, the ERJ135/140/145 members of the family are among the safest airliners in history. The Airbus A340 is also one of the safest, with no fatal accidents involving any of the 380 units since its introduction in March 1993.

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The Boeing 787 is one of the newest planes to come into passenger service. First delivered in 2011, the aircraft has become a favorite for airlines thanks to its extensive range and fuel efficiency. And, for passengers, the travel experience was much better compared to older aircraft.

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Airbus has the better safety record by far. In fact, Boeing's 737 alone has more crashes than all Airbus crashes combined. With that being said, it's important to ask yourself WHY Airbus has a better safety record than Boeing, and the reasons behind this aren't all bad.

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KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, March 27, 1977 This crash remains the deadliest ever, claiming the lives of 583 people when two 747s collided on a foggy runway on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

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The Dreamliner is a successful aircraft, still in production with more than 1600 delivered or on order. The list price for a new Boeing 787-8 is $239 million dollars. Yet even as international travel opens again for these long-range aircraft, two Dreamliners barely ten years old are waiting for the wrecker's ball.

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The typical lifespan of airliners The composite-driven Boeing 787 Dreamliner is designed for 44,000 flight cycles. These jets can theoretically last several decades with an average of two flight cycles a day. Unlike commercial airliners, fighter jets are unique due to their mission requirements.

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The 787's latest problem mirrors production issues discovered over 2020 and 2021 that included improperly fitted shimming that led to paper-thin gaps between surfaces on the Dreamliner's fuselage.

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The latest issue affects a fitting assembly in horizontal stabilizers built by a Boeing facility in Salt Lake City. The fittings come from an external supplier, and each unit is assembled and installed onto stabilizers in Salt Lake, a Boeing source said.

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Production resumed in August 2022 and the company is currently sitting on 575 unfilled orders. Some 40 airlines are flying the Dreamliner, with Japan's airlines showing the greatest appetite for the twin-aisle aircraft.

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It's the latest in a long and very expensive litany of 787 quality woes. The affected attachment fitting is provided by a supplier and installed on the horizontal tail at Boeing's manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City. The defect is a small, paper-thin gap in the attachment, Boeing said.

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The B787 has an active turbulence suppression system, and the passenger experiences that as less turbulence. It's equivalent to active noise suppression with a headset, so though you still hear an external noise, it's quieter to you.

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The Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner was grounded worldwide between March 2019 and December 2020 – longer in many jurisdictions – after 346 people died in two crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019.

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