NTSB Says Boeing 787 Battery Shows Short-Circuiting
Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Thursday that though investigators have found evidence of an issue in the Dreamliner battery damaged in a Jan. 7 fire in Boston, they have not determined the underlying cause.
“We are early in our investigation, we have a lot of activities to undertake,” Hersman said in a news conference, according to Reuters. “This is an unprecedented event. We are very concerned. We do not expect to see fire events on board aircraft. This is a very serious air safety concern.’”
Investigators say the damaged battery shows evidence of short-circuiting and a chemical reaction known as “thermal runaway,” in which an increase in temperature causes progressively hotter temperatures.
It’s not clear to investigators which came first, the short-circuiting or the thermal runaway, Hersman said. Nor is it clear yet what caused either of them, she said during a news briefing on the board’s investigation.