Heathrow Airport suspended arrival and departures due to a fire on an empty plane.
A pair of incidents involving Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner" in the United Kingdom has put the U.S. jetmaker back into the spotlight Friday as more problems beset its newest commercial passenger plane.
One incident involved a fire on an empty Ethiopian Airlines 787 that forced Heathrow Airport to temporarily close both its runways Friday. The other involved a Florida-bound Thomson Airways Dreamliner, which returned to the English city of Manchester "as a precautionary measure" after reporting an unspecified technical issue, according to the Associated Press.
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Thomson said all 291 passengers on the jet were taken off the plane and that engineers were inspecting the aircraft.
But it was the fire on the Ethiopian Airlines 787 that drew most of the media attention. That's in part because it forced London's busy Heathrow Airport to briefly suspend all arrivals and departures Friday, but also because of the 787's troubled history with its batteries.
It was not immediately clear what caused Friday's fire on the Ethiopian 787 in London, though Boeing's shares dropped sharply on news of the latest problems. The value of Boeing shares closed Friday at 101.87, down about 5%.
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group Corporation, said it was too early to comment about the fire at Heathrow -- though he added to AP that this is "not a welcome development" for Boeing.
The plane had been parked at a remote holding area for more than eight hours before smoke was detected, Sky News reports.
TV images of the fire damage -- such as this screenshot on the Airlinereporter.com aviation blog -- show that the fire appeared to have burned through the jet fuselage's carbon fiber skin.
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The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said in a 1:32 p.m. tweet that it is "sending (an) accredited representative to London-Heathrow to assist in investigation of fire aboard Ethiopian Airlines B-787."
Safety regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere grounded the 787 in mid-January on concerns about overheating lithium-ion batteries. The jet remained grounded for nearly four months, before Ethiopian Airlines became the first to resume Dreamliner flights on April 27.
In Friday's incident, the registration number (ET-AOP) of the plane that caught fire at Heathrow is the same as the aircraft used in the April 27 flight, according to AP.
Heathrow Airport said in a tweet there were no passengers aboard the plane and that British police were unsure what started it. London's fire department said its firefighters were on standby to assist Heathrow's crews.
Runways had reopened, though the airport warned of residual backups.
"The runways are now fully re-open following an earlier incident on board an aircraft," Heathrow Airport tweeted at 5:55 p.m. local time (12:55 p.m. ET). "Please expect delays to arrivals and departures."
Boeing said it was looking into the matter.
"We're aware of the 787 event (at Heathrow) and have Boeing personnel there," the company said in a tweet at 12:34 p.m. ET. "We're working to fully understand and address this."
As for the incident, television images showed nearly a dozen fire trucks on the scene and firefighters standing around the Ethiopian Airlines plane, which was parked on a remote stand.
The incident is likely to heap more pressure on Boeing, which makes the Dreamliner.
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The Dreamliner was grounded for three months earlier this year amid concerns about overheating lithium-ion batteries. Shares in Boeing have fallen more than 1.3% on the news.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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