Debris from S.C.-built Boeing 787 sparks fire, closes airport
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Federal officials are trying to determine why debris fell from the engine of a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, starting a fire and forcing officials to shut down a South Carolina airport.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports that debris from the aircraft fell onto the runway at Charleston International Airport and into the grass Saturday, sparking a blaze that closed the airport for more than an hour.
Boeing spokeswoman Candy Eslinger says the aircraft was undergoing preflight runway testing in North Charleston when the incident occurred. The 787 was the latest one built at the Boeing campus in North Charleston.
No one was injured in the incident.
Company spokesman Marc Birtel said the company could not disclose the nature of the engine issue due to rules surrounding the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation, and Eslinger said Boeing is committed to working with federal officials to find the cause of the accident and taking action to prevent a recurrence.
"As the NTSB investigates, Boeing and GE are working closely with the agency and are committed to resolving the issue appropriately," Eslinger said in a prepared statement.
"While the investigation is in its early stages, we are unaware of any operational issue that would present concerns about the continued safe operation of in-service 787s powered by GE engines. However, should the investigation determine a need to act, Boeing has the processes in place to take action and will do so appropriately," she added.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams said there was no information available at this time but expects investigators are reviewing the case and may release some details by Monday.
The Dreamliner jet is one of Boeing's most critical products. The company delivered the first 787 last year following several years of design and production delays. Airlines set record orders for the jet, as its lightweight, high-tech design was expected to offer travelers more comfort, provide airlines significant fuel savings and open up new routes.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports that debris from the aircraft fell onto the runway at Charleston International Airport and into the grass Saturday, sparking a blaze that closed the airport for more than an hour.
Boeing spokeswoman Candy Eslinger says the aircraft was undergoing preflight runway testing in North Charleston when the incident occurred. The 787 was the latest one built at the Boeing campus in North Charleston.
No one was injured in the incident.
Company spokesman Marc Birtel said the company could not disclose the nature of the engine issue due to rules surrounding the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation, and Eslinger said Boeing is committed to working with federal officials to find the cause of the accident and taking action to prevent a recurrence.
"As the NTSB investigates, Boeing and GE are working closely with the agency and are committed to resolving the issue appropriately," Eslinger said in a prepared statement.
"While the investigation is in its early stages, we are unaware of any operational issue that would present concerns about the continued safe operation of in-service 787s powered by GE engines. However, should the investigation determine a need to act, Boeing has the processes in place to take action and will do so appropriately," she added.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams said there was no information available at this time but expects investigators are reviewing the case and may release some details by Monday.
The Dreamliner jet is one of Boeing's most critical products. The company delivered the first 787 last year following several years of design and production delays. Airlines set record orders for the jet, as its lightweight, high-tech design was expected to offer travelers more comfort, provide airlines significant fuel savings and open up new routes.
Benny Hill said "boeing!" was the sound the part makes when it hits the ground.
maybe something as little as a bolt or wrench could have been left in the the intake and was sucked through the engine.
Cheap labor? I doubt the parts just "fell" off a moving aircraft - probably more like spat parts out at light speed and it's lucky no one got hit.
I'm sorry. I just don't get all this union vs non-union bloviating here. I will be the first to admit I will praise Seattle workers over S.C. workers any day, but please. To the best of my knowledge no one has even mentioned what type of "parts" fell off the engine. I for one will gladly wait for the investigation to end before pointing any fingers. In the mean time all I will say is, "Oops!"
usnrbb, I agree. The story is too vague for the Union lovers to hate on the non-union plane builders. the story said the parts came off the engine, Boeing employees, don't build the GE jet engines, they just install them.
I've been working on jet aircraft for over 30 years, and have seen this happen from all of the big 3 manufacturers of jet engines during that time (Pratt & Whitney, Rolls, and GE). The airframe manufacturer is rarely responsible for an engine failure, it is simply a complex piece of machinery that the airframe manufacturer installs onto the airframe. All three of the large engine companies are unionized, but that is not the point here. Either the mechanical failure of the engine was do to a failed or multiple failed parts, engineering of said parts, or incorrect assembly. Most of the time, in the years I've worked on aircraft-both military and civilian, we remove and replace the engine and press on with operations. The removed engine is gone over with complete investigation/analysis to find the core cause of failure. On engines that have many years in the fleets, the problems usually are confined to the failed engine. Doesn't matter where or when the failure happened, it happens everywhere, even on Puget Sound flight lines, aircraft overhaul shops around the world, and airports these aircraft are dispatched from. Its not a union problem or a geographical problem. It happens everywhere! Until the root cause of this particular incident is analyzed correctly, nobody knows. Anything else is pure conjecture and speculation.
Why does where its built have anything to do with it? Komo is just trying to fuel an unneeded debate. I'm sure no mistakes have ever been delivered from WA's plants.
Yay, those awful union workers sure do a crappy job. Wait a minute...
 @Howard Beale Why are you bashing the union workers who made the engine?
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 @Overwingexit The ones that are quick to blame are the union stooges blaming the non-union workers.
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 @Middle Ground I work at BSC, and your comment on wages is short sighted and presumptuous AT BEST. Thought I would just set you straight on that point.
 @Overwingexit The non-union worker in S.C. is making a very comparable wage to the union worker in Washington State.
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If you look at the early posts here, they are almost all from union workers bashing the non-union workers in S.C. Those are the "dull argument" posts. Yours isn't much better in calling non-union workers "puppets."
Sounds like an engine problem, people, so you can quit waving your local pom-poms and get off yer high union horse.Â
There is a propulsion group in Boeing (UNION) that also works on the engines before they are installed. I would not be suprised to find out someone left their wrench (FOD) in the engine cowling.
 @tolerance Nor would I be surprised to learn that a (union) worker at G.E. simply screwed up.
Build them here!
Somebody failed to send their left-over parts back to stores.
What do you expect when you move your plane building operations to a southern state with one of the least educated populations and where the average wage is below the federal poverty level.
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My guess is so many problems will keep happening that Boeing will just close the place down after 2-3 crashes in the next few years. The unions knew this would happen which is part of the reason they dropped their complaint while using the 737-MAX as the "public reason."
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Long story short: you need smart people to build planes.
 @NorthwestEconomist What Toyota found out after they started building Camry's in Kentucky was the JD Power numbers for reliability were higher for cars manufactured by Hillbillies in KY than the ones made in Japan by their ultra educated population...
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That's maybe not the greatest comparison because they also debug the assembly line in Japan before unbolting and moving it to KY before they ever produce one car on it in KY... Boeing sort of does the same thing in SC - they mostly build follow on AP's (duplicates of the first of a particular customers order where the first one is built in Everett - sort of a debug process)
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With a High School graduation rate of barely over 50% in the super educated Seattle area I'd say we don't have that much to brag about. Yes we have more per capita advanced college degrees but we also seem to have a plethora of folks will little common sense. I'll take the good ole boy that knows which end of a screwdriver to use over the PHD in Computer Science to build my airplane or car...
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We have very capable AP mechanics both here and in SC.
 @NorthwestEconomist DO you always make up statistics to tout your cause or is it something you learned recently. South Carolina has a far higher high school graduation rate than Washington State. College is a bit harder to pin down but S.C. has over 30% of its population with at least an Associates Degree.
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The average wage (all jobs) in S.C. is $12.45 an hour (2005)..Washington's wages are skewed by those making more than $75,000 but service sector is about the same as S.C.
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The problem has been traced to a G.E. engine (made by union employees), not the plane itself.
@ground. "you always make up statistics to tout your cause". In addition, before you blame the GE people, you obviously have no idea who all of the people are who actually do work on the engines or even when they do work on them. I.e. before you, or anyone, says that they know the cause or who caused it, maybe you should wait until the actual investigation is finished and the results are published. Plus at least read a number of comments in here that are obviously a lot more informed than your comments and that provide a lot more information than your guesses and misinformation provide. Or do you have some information or sources that none of the rest of us have? Or are you prescient?
ummmmâ¦.. Besides a number of other of your posts on here, there is your quote just above of "The problem has been traced to a G.E. engine (made by union employees)". But of course yeah you are absolutely right. You are not "placing blame on a particular set of workers" at all. Just insinuations, aspersions, detractions, and etc. etc. And of course you are not at all myopic.
 @flyskiwindsurf I'm not the one who's placing blame on a particular set of workers. Perhaps you should lose your myopic view and look at the entire picture before casting blame.
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 @Middle Ground http://www.all4ed.org/about_the_crisis/schools/map This national map from the same org. differs with that. The documentation you listed breaks down the graduation rates (4yr. students, 5, etc. and GEDs) However, the most accurate reporting rate includes those added variables, otherwise states would be unable to determine the success of their GED and other special graduation programs. Normal grad. (4 yrs.) S.C is higher, but not the Real reported rate.Â
 @Overwingexit Washington's graduation rate in 2009 was lower than South Carolinas.
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http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/understanding_HSgradrates
@NorthwestEconomist I agree that you need smart people to build planes, but I know just as well there are smart people who are not part of any type of union
 @choliscott  @NorthwestEconomist The most beneficial thing that I can see that the union brings to the playing field, is the ability for the mechanic to point out defects, and press to have them fixed, without worrying about getting fired.  I have seen first hand how this company can try to sweep things under the rug and punish the people who don't buy into selling beans despite quality.Â
 @choliscott  @NorthwestEconomist You're right, but what's funny is that WA is the state in the country with the highest portion of higher-educated adults and we also happen to be one of the most unionized. There is a serious correlation there. Intelligent people happen to want good wages and good working conditions.
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Taking production of an incredibly complex machine that needs to provide safe air transport to hundreds of people to an uneducated poor backwater to lower costs will backfire horribly against Boeing when they start falling out of the sky.
 @Overwingexit Naw... it comes from government web sites. Perhaps instead of using your extremely lazy attempt at sarcasm you'd be wise to try some research of your own to refute my statement.
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Typical lazy union worker that you are, I guess putting out a few minutes of actual research would be much too taxing for your brain cell.
 @NorthwestEconomist The only correlation is people being forced to join unions in order to have a job.
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By the way, the average education of the S.C. Boeing workers is higher than their counterparts in Washington.
This picture misleading us....not even at the airport,but in the Boeing Plant ! KOMO better use good
picture to show us !
Not even news. Just to rile up the union works here in Seattle.
At first I thought a 787 had crashed when I read that headline.Â
Seems to me that there have been one problem after another with the "Dreamliner". This plane is not a dream.... it's been a nightmare!
Ah, the best mechanics minimum wage can buy.
 @>T H I S< The mechanics wages are fairly comparable to those in Everett. A far cry from minimum wage. Nice try....
Actually, you are incorrect. Many of them make well under what the Union workers here make. I know, as I currently work in Boeing Finance. There are employes there who make less than Washington State's minimum wage. I know people who have relocated there within Boeing, and they have expressed extreme frustration with many in the workforce there. Also, the engine don't just get "bolted" on to the plane (as someone else above had implied). There is a propulsion group in Boeing that also works on the engines before they are installed. I would not be suprised to find out someone left their wrench (FOD) in the engine cowling.
 @tolerance Well since you know... would you care to post exactly what each plant's workers make? I didn't think so.... more nonsense, 1/2 truths and outright lies from the union stooges. Here's your chance big guy. Prove me wrong. Post the numbers and the sources. Yeah... we already knew you wouldn't and couldn't.
Journalism at it's best. Too bad the finger points towards GE, a union shop.
Oh boy! Here we go.
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Those Boeing SC critics are going to have a field day with this one!
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G.E. engines or the infamous RR?
 @HonkeyCat Why not read the article?Â
"Boeing and GE are working closely."
"we are unaware of any operational issue that would present concerns about the continued safe operation of in-service 787s powered by GE engines."
Reading comprehension *FAIL*!
CHARLESTON, S.C. â
Debris fell from a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner Saturday afternoon which caused a South Carolina airport to shut down briefly, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported.
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The incident happened at Charleston International Airport when something fell from an airplane and caused a small grass fire.
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The runway was closed for about an hour to put out the fire and to conduct a sweep after finding metal debris.
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Before the incident was reported, a Boeing 787 was seen taxiing on the runway.
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Boeing spokeswoman Candy Eslinger said the aircraft experienced an engine issue during a pre-flight runway test in North Charleston when the incident occurred.
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No injuries were reported, and the National Transportation Safety Board will continue to investigate.
@Fooey Patooey!
Um, ah, err, well... maybe because when the story was first released this morning around 6 AM, the whole six or eight sentences at the time did not mention the engine manufacturer? Maybe it only mentioned an engine malfunction and a fire, and that the NTSB was investigating? Maybe...
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Seeing that it was updated after 10:00 AM, maybe, just maybe, KOMO's original post didn't say G.E.? Not like that has ever happened.
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No comprehension problems here. I get an *A* :>}
  OK, I woke up. RR = Rolls Royce
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@HonkeyCat
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What is RR?  I am thinking that this is a case of FOD (Foreign Object Debris).
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All specutlative at this point, of course.