NTSB chief: Boeing 787 batteries not necessarily unsafe

  • By JOAN LOWY

    Associated Press

  • Posted: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 12:07 p.m.
  • Text size: A A A
This Jan. 17, 2013 photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery, left, and an undamaged auxiliary battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, western Japan. An investigation into the battery that overheated on a Boeing 787 flight in Japan found evidence of the same type of "thermal runaway" seen in a similar incident in Boston, officials said Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Japan Transport Safety Board, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top accident investigator says lithium ion batteries like the ones that caused a fire in one Boeing 787 Dreamliner and smoke in another aren’t necessarily unsafe for use in aviation, but safeguards are needed.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman says she doesn’t want to categorically rule out the use of lithium ion batteries to power aircraft systems, but that manufacturers need to build in safeguards that protect against battery fires.

Hersman told reporters Wednesday the board is still weeks away from determining the cause of the Jan. 7 battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 while it was parked in Boston.

She also said the board is looking into whether the batteries should have to meet tougher testing standards adopted after regulators certified the 787s batteries.

The 787 has been grounded for more than two weeks as investigators in the U.S. and Japan seek to determine the root cause of the malfunctions. The plane is assembled at Boeing plants in North Charleston and Everett, Wash.

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