Boeing 787 JA829J

Summary

On 7 January 2013 at about 15:30 local time, a Boeing 787 registered JA829J, operated by Japan Airlines International Co Ltd, was involved in an incident near Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The number of people on board was not recorded. The aircraft was slightly damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

7 January 2013 at 15:30

Classification

Incident

Location

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Nearest airport

Gen Edward Lawrence Logan Intl (BOS)

Coordinates

42.3631, -71.0064

Aircraft

Boeing 787

Registration

JA829J

Category

Airplane

Operator

Japan Airlines International Co Ltd

Operating rule

Part 129: Foreign

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Narita → Boston

Aircraft damage

Minor

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DCA13IA037

Injuries not recorded.

an internal short circuit within a cell of the auxiliary power unit (APU) lithium-ion battery, which led to thermal runaway that cascaded to adjacent cells, resulting in the release of smoke and fire. The incident resulted from Boeing's failure to incorporate design requirements to mitigate the most severe effects of an internal short circuit within an APU battery cell and the Federal Aviation Administration's failure to identify this design deficiency during the type design certification process.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The Safety Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/aviation.aspx. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-14/01. On January 7, 2013, about 1021 eastern standard time, smoke was discovered by cleaning personnel in the aft cabin of a Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 787-8, JA829J, which was parked at a gate at General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, Massachusetts. About the same time, a maintenance manager in the cockpit observed that the auxiliary power unit (APU) had automatically shut down. Shortly afterward, a mechanic opened the aft electronic equipment bay and found heavy smoke coming from the lid of the APU battery case and a fire with two distinct flames at the electrical connector on the front of the case. None of the 183 passengers and 11 crewmembers were aboard the airplane at the time, and none of the maintenance or cleaning personnel aboard the airplane was injured. Aircraft rescue and firefighting personnel responded, and one firefighter received minor injuries. The airplane had arrived from Narita International Airport, Narita, Japan, as a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated as JAL flight 008 and conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 129.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.