LOT Dreamliner Lands in Iceland on ID System Issue
A LOT Polish Airlines SA Dreamliner flying to Warsaw from Toronto made an unscheduled landing in Iceland due to a fault with the aircraft’s onboard identification system.
The
Boeing Co. (BA) 787 landed at Keflavik airport in Reykjavik after
Norway denied permission to fly over its airspace because of the defective system, Barbara Pijanowska-Kuras, a LOT spokeswoman, said by phone. The identification system sends out information about a plane to air-traffic control and helps identify the aircraft. The Polish airline sent two planes to Iceland to transport the passengers, she said.
“LOT has already made the proper arrangements and parts and personnel are en route to address the issue and return the airplane to flight status,” Doug Alder, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing, said today in an e-mail. “Boeing stands ready to help if asked.”
The state-controlled carrier has bet on the use of Dreamliners to cut costs and help restore the struggling airline to profit. LOT is already in talks with Boeing to get compensation for losses from a three-month global grounding of the Dreamliner fleet over electrical faults earlier this year.
LOT, which currently operates five Dreamliners, reported daily losses of $50,000 from the grounding when its first plane was stranded in
Chicago after the inaugural flight.
Dreamliner Scrutiny
The LOT incident follows
Norwegian Air Shuttle AS (NAS)’s announcement yesterday that it is taking one of its Dreamliner planes out of service for repairs. The company said it will lease an Airbus A340 to ensure all scheduled flights keep running between Scandinavia and the U.S. and
Thailand.
Norwegian Air is grappling with technical glitches on the Dreamliner, from cockpit oxygen supply issues that delayed a flight to New York from Oslo on Sept. 22, to brake difficulties that affected a second 787 in
Sweden this month.
The Dreamliner, which made its commercial debut in 2011, has been under scrutiny after regulators this year ordered the global fleet idled to fix battery meltdowns. Last month, the plane suffered a fresh setback after ANA Holdings Inc., the model’s biggest operator, discovered wiring defects in the fire-suppression system on three aircraft.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...n-iceland-on-identification-system-issue.html
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