First Air India B787 flight ends in "emergency landing"

[RoMax]

As they felt something bad was comming for Air India (see Star Alliance topic) the first flight of ZA233 (airplane 29), the first B787 for Air India was cut short after they declared an emergency.

At 12:46 local time they took of for a standard B-1 production flight for an initial check of the aircraft's systems. There were 4 crew on board and they had fuel for a 5h flight. And this was only the third production B787 to fly after ZA102 for ANA and ZA177 for JAL.

Only minutes after take off the crew reported that they had a little bit of a flap problem and they might be returning. At 12:55 they declared an emergency and requisted a return to Paine Field noting a problem with the flight controls.

ZA233 landed safely and Boeing said the issue was a failed sensor, but declined to give more comment.

This aircraft is supposed to be ferried to San Antonio were it will join ZA177 (JAL). In San Antonio a part of the B787's and B748's will be refurbished to meet final delivery standards.

As this occured on a first flight of an aircraft after the other aircraft performed already thousands of flight hours I expect that this is a issue of that specific aircraft. But anyway this comes at a very bad moment as Boeing is very close to EIS (certification of the Trent 1000 B787 at the end of August) and everybody is watching the B787 very close.

[earthman]

As this occured on a first flight of an aircraft after the other aircraft performed already thousands of flight hours I expect that this is a issue of that specific aircraft.

Not that many 787s have flown, therefore not that many of these sensors got tested (unless they swap out the sensors after each flight, which I highly doubt). Does it say 'made in china' on them? The build quality could have deteriorated after the first batch was accepted..

[smokejumper]

There are probably more sensors replaced in commercial aircraft than we are aware of. (I don’t know what sensor was involved in this case, but it might not have been a critical one). This might have been a situation in which the pilot was more cautious since the plane has not yet been certified than an actual emergency.

[RoMax]

According to some sources the aircraft is sheduled to fly again today after Boeing did some investigation on the aircraft.

[RoMax]

According to some sources the aircraft is sheduled to fly again today after Boeing did some investigation on the aircraft.

A flight plan for ZA233 was filed yesterday, but technicians were still working around the aircraft and the flight didn't go trough.

[RoMax]

The blog "All things 787" says that the sensor was not connected properly and that the problem has been resolved.

B-1 flight seems to be performed early today (at least early in the US, 07:12 local time departure). It did 958km in 1h 40min. So it seems the problems are indeed solved and were not so severe as some people tought (especially when you read Airlines.net you would've read some seemed to be thinking this was a terrible and very serious emergency... )
It will fly to San Antonio somewhere this week for rework.

[sn26567]

Boeing is apprently still testing the flap sensors of VT-AND at Paine Field.

[RoMax]

Boeing is apprently still testing the flap sensors of VT-AND at Paine Field.

That picture is actually from August 1, when they were indeed testing the flap sensors. Another B-1 test flight was performed on August 3 and seemed succesfull as they were in the sky for 1h40 as planned.

[PYX]

The Air India 787 will be landing in San Antonio in about 6 minutes after a 3 hour, 29 minute flight from Seattle.