After a nearly two-week investigation by the U.S. and Japanese aviation authorizes, it appears that GS Yuasa's batteries are not to blame for the Boeing Dreamliners' recent incidents:
A fire on the Japan Airlines aircraft in Boston's Logan International Airport on January 7.
A smoke alarm aboard a plane flying over Japan on January 16.
"While investigators found several issues in quality control at the company, they didn't uncover any serious problems that can be linked to recent incidents involving Dreamliners," said Yasuo Ishii, director of air worthiness standards at the Japanese transport ministry, according to CNN.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated last week that the lithium ion battery on the Boston Dreamliner "experienced" a "thermal runaway" and a "short circuit," but they can't figure out which occurred first.
A thermal runaway, for all of the non-technical folks is when [the] battery releases energy in the form of heat, increasing the temperature of the battery and causing further damage. In an electrical short, electricity follows an unintended path," according to CNN.
In any case, according to NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman, neither event should have happened in the first place.
"There are multiple systems to protect against a battery event like this. Those systems did not work as intended, we need to understand why," she said, according to CNN.
So, if the battery isn't the issue, what is?
Boeing is determined to find the cause and have their technical experts working "around the clock" with the lone focus of "resolving the issues" and returning the 787 (Dreamliner) to the sky.
With 50 Dreamliners grounded and hundreds on order, if this issue isn't dealt with sooner rather than later, Boeing could be looking at losses stemming in the range of millions to billions of dollars.
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