Video: Japan airlines ground Boeing 787s after emergency evacuation
Japan's two main airlines have grounded their Boeing 787 Dreamliners after one was forced to make an emergency landing after experiencing battery problems.
All Nippon Airway (ANA) grounded its fleet of 17 Dreamliners when its flight NH 692 from Yamaguchi Ube was forced to land 18 minutes into its hour-long journey.
In the wake of the incident, Japan Airlines then quickly grounded its fleet of seven 787s, starting from 16 January until further notice.
The battery malfunction occurred on Wednesday, when ANA's flight NH 692 left Yamaguchi Ube airport in western Japan, headed for Tokyo's Haneda Airport.
The airline said pilots saw a warning on their computer screen telling them there was smoke inside one of the electrical compartments.
The pilots also received a warning that there was a fault in the battery system. ANA said the battery in the forward cargo hold was the same type as the one involved in a fire on another Dreamliner at a US airport last week, according to the BBC.
The pilots then decided to perform an emergency landed at Takamatsu Airport, where fire trucks were waiting on the runway.
ANA said the 129 passengers and eight cabin crew were then evacuated with the help of emergency chutes, with a number of people suffering minor injuries.
According to the Daily Telegraph, one man in his 60s was sent to hospital to be treated for minor hip injuries after going down the emergency slides.
It is the latest in a run of problems for Boeing's 787. Brendan Sobie, Singapore-based chief analyst at CAPA-Centre for Aviation said to AP: "There are always teething problems with new aircraft and airlines often are reluctant to be the launch customer of any new airplanes."
ANA was the world's first carrier to receive Boeing's 78 Dreamliner, seen by many as the futiue of commercial aviation. But multiple problems have hit Japan's stock already: a cancelled flight on 9 January after a computer wrongly indicated a problem with the brakes; two issues reported on 11 January, a fuel leak and a cracked windscreen.
Japan Airlines also suffered problems last week with their 787s, including a fire on an empty plane, and a fuel leak.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was monitoring the latest incident.
According to AP, the FAA said: "The FAA is monitoring a preliminary report of an incident in Japan earlier today involving a Boeing 787. The incident will be included in the comprehensive review the FAA began last week of the 787 critical systems, including design, manufacture and assembly."
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