Ethiopia’s Boeing plane catches fire at London Heathrow Airport

July 12, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) – A fire broke out on an Ethiopian Airlines-owned Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jet at Britain’s main airport, London Heathrow, on Friday. No casualties have been reported.

An official at the Ethiopian Airlines office in Addis Ababa said the plane was parking at the airport during the accident and no passengers were on board.

The official who refused to be named told Sudan Tribune that the cause of the fire was most likely to be the newly modified batteries of the plane, which have been the cause of previous overheating problems causing fires.

However, the actual cause to the fire in London is yet to be determined.

The fire forced temporary the closure of Heathrow’s main runways suspending all take-offs and arrivals in one of the world’s busiest airport.

Television footage showed the London fire brigade aiding airport staff.

Boeing’s entire fleet of Dreamliners were grounded in January after the plane’s lithium-ion batteries suffered a meltdown on two separate passenger jets.

Boeing later fixed the problem by modifying new batteries.

After the new batteries were approved by US regulators, some 50 Dreamliners which had been grounded worldwide resumed flights in April.

The Ethiopian Airlines was the first airliner to resume flights with Dreamliner after the new batteries were installed to the passenger jets by Boeing technicians who came to Addis Ababa for this purpose.

The three month grounding of the Dreamliner fleet is said to have cost the Boeing Company up to $600 million and also saw a decline in its shares.

(ST)