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| Date: | Monday 7 January 2013 |
| Time: | 10:30 |
| Type: |  Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner |
| Owner/operator: | Japan Airlines (JAL) |
| Registration: | JA829J |
| MSN: | 34839/84 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2012 |
| Engine model: | GE GEnx-1B |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Boston-Logan International Airport, MA (BOS/KBOS) -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Standing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Tokyo-Narita Airport (NRT/RJAA) |
| Boston-Logan International Airport, MA (BOS/KBOS) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
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.
Probable Cause: 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.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 8 March 2014 | JA829J | Japan Airlines (JAL) | 0 | ca. 1800km N of Honolulu, Hawaii, USA |  |
min |
| 19 April 2015 | JA829J | Japan Airlines (JAL) | 0 | Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK/VTBS) |  |
min |
| Tire failure | ||||||
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 07-Jan-2013 12:01 | dfix1 | Added |
| 07-Jan-2013 12:02 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Destination airport, ] |
| 07-Jan-2013 12:08 | harro | Updated [Registration, Cn, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative, ] |
| 08-Jan-2013 03:21 | Hans Gruber | Updated [Time, Embed code, ] |
| 08-Jan-2013 03:22 | Hans Gruber | Updated [Time, Embed code, ] |
| 08-Jan-2013 12:39 | harro | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 08-Jan-2013 13:12 | harro | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 23-Jan-2016 08:01 | AF5541 | Updated [Total occupants, ] |
| 29-Nov-2017 12:12 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Sep-2018 20:10 | harro | Updated [Cn, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Sep-2018 20:10 | harro | Updated [Source, Embed code, Accident report, ] |
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