Boeing 787-8 N26906

Summary

On 10 October 2014 at about 13:00 local time, a Boeing 787-8 registered N26906, operated by United Airlines Inc, was involved in an incident near London, United Kingdom. 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

10 October 2014 at 13:00

Classification

Incident

Location

London, United Kingdom

Nearest airport

Heathrow International Airport (EGLL)

Coordinates

51.4775, -0.4614

Aircraft

Boeing 787-8

Registration

N26906

Category

Airplane

Year built

2012

Operator

United Airlines Inc

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

London → Houston

Aircraft damage

Minor

Weather

Unk

Light

Day

NTSB number

ENG15IA037

Injuries not recorded.

A shutdown of the displays due to the inability to operate through a rapid transient radiated electric field brought on by a near field lightning strike. Contributing to the loss of displays for the remainder of the flight was the lack of guidance to the crew to perform a controlled power reset to the display.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

Based on crew reports and verified with images from the crew and the EAFR, the flight crew lost the use of three of the five head down displays following a lightning strike.  The crew followed published procedures, however the procedures did not contain a checklist related to a partial loss of displays.  After the crew elected to follow the "Loss of All Displays Checklist", none of the affected displays recovered to an operational state.  The crew did land the aircraft successfully using the remaining displays available to the crew.  All of the displays did recover normal operation after accomplishing a power cycle to the displays while the aircraft was on the ground.  No procedures existed for a power reset of the displays to occur while in flight, which most likely would have resulted in a restoration of the displays. Reviewing the design and display certification requirements, the displays passed their respective certification testing required by the FAA.   Supplemental testing by the investigation also showed the displays operating satisfactorily at testing levels that were above levels specified in the original certification of the aircraft and system.  However, when subjecting the displays to testing that was based on different standardized system level testing (typically associated with military aircraft) that was not required to be conducted for display unit or aircraft certification, the failure could be repeated.  This failure was attributed to the display's response to a rapid transient radiated electric field.  The electrical field analysis of the aircraft cockpit confirmed that similar electrical transients can be present during certain lightning strikes experienced by an aircraft.  Although the displays passed the required certification testing required by the FAA, it was determined that certain environmental conditions exist that could cause adverse conditions of the display operation resulting in a loss of the display.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.