Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Grounded Qatar Airways 787 "Dreamliner" returns to the skies

Qatar Airways, which pulled one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners out of service ten days ago, said the plane resumed flying today after replacing some parts.

A delay in shipping one of the components to Qatar Airway’s hub in Doha, Qatar, caused the plane to be taken out of service since July 22, the carrier said in an e-mailed statement today, without specifying which parts were required.

“Qatar Airways confirms that its Boeing 787 Dreamliner A7-BCB has reconvened service after a number of technical components required replacement,” it said. Once the component had arrived, it required three days of post-assembly and testing.

Qatar Airways said last week that it found a “minor” technical issue while the plane was on the ground, without providing details. The incident followed a spate of mishaps for the Boeing 787, including a fire on board an Ethiopian Airlines-owned Dreamliner this month at Heathrow Airport, and a three-month grounding of the global fleet after batteries caught fire.

Qatar Airways currently has six Boeing 787 Dreamliners in its fleet and 54 on order, according to its website.

(Deena Kamel Yousef - Bloomberg)

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