Ethiopian Airlines halts Dreamliner services
Ethiopian Airlines says it has temporarily pulled its Boeing 787 Dreamliners out of service for precautionary inspection on Thursday, January 17, 2013.
Even though the Ethiopian Dreamliners have not encountered any type of problems such as those experienced by other operators, the halt was due to a directive of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandating operators to “perform special inspection requirements on the Dreamliner airplane battery system in accordance with a method approved by it.”
“However, as an extra precautionary safety measure and in line with its commitment of putting safety above all else, Ethiopian has decided to pull out its four Dreamliners from operation and perform the special inspection requirements mandated by the US FAA,” the airline operator said in a statement.
The FAA directive was issued following recent incidents that occurred on Dreamliner airplanes operated by two other airlines.
The airline has been operating the Dreamliner since mid-August 2012 and has since logged 5,560 flight hours with average daily aircraft utilization of 14 hours.
Ethiopian says it is working closely with Boeing to comply with the US FAA approved special inspection procedure on the battery system and perform the maintenance as per the directive.
By Ekow Quandzie