Pilots on Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner were forced to deploy its landing gear manually after the system malfunctioned during a landing attempt in Okayama, Japan.
The Dreamliner encountered its first problem Monday, just two weeks after All Nippon Airways’ (ANA) first commercial flight of the plane. A spokeswoman for the airline said the problem was caused by a faulty hydraulic valve.
The malfunction came on the eve of Airbus’s announcement that the inaugural flight of their A350 plane, the only planned competitor to the Dreamliner, would be delayed six more months to the middle of 2014.
Boeing has delivered the first two of the new Dreamliner planes to ANA. The Dreamliner’s design makes it best suited for international and long-haul flights, but ANA said it would move both planes to domestic flights until Boeing sorts out the landing gear issue.
The Dreamliner’s landing gear problems came less than a week after a Boeing 767 encountered similar problems in Poland and was forced to crash-land on its belly. No passengers were hurt in the crash.
Monday’s incident was just the latest setback for the Dreamliner. The plane has gone through nearly three years of delays, stretching from its maiden flight in 2009 to its first commercial flight from on Oct. 26.
Boeing’s Dreamliner has been called the most advanced jetliner ever. Made of carbon composites instead of aluminum, its design is meant to make the airplane as fuel-efficient as possible. However, many of the Dreamliner’s innovations were also responsible for its long delays.
Boeing hasn’t announced any plans to recall the planes and has continued to showcase Dreamliners, delivering planes to air shows in Auckland and Dubai this week.
“They probably won’t do a full recall because it costs too much,” freshman business major Tommy Caroline speculated, “but ethically they should. It’s a brand new plane.”
Freshman letters and sciences major Justin Shapiro also said Boeing should recall and test the two Dreamliner planes that have already been delivered.
“If tests prove it was only an isolated incident, they should start delivering planes again,” he said.
Shapiro didn’t think the 767 crash should have any influence on Boeing’s decision. “They’re completely different models, it shouldn’t matter,” he said.