Passenger Jets | featured news

The Federal Aviation Administration gave formal approval on Thursday for a new lithium-ion battery system for Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner, ending a three-month ban and clearing airlines to fly the plane with passengers again.

Federal regulators have approved a Boeing plan to redesign the 787 Dreamliner's fire-prone lithium-ion batteries, although extensive testing will be needed before the planes can fly passengers again.

A top executive will meet with agency officials on Friday to outline efforts to get the Boeing 787 back in the air.

An examination of the undamaged battery in the parked Boston plane found nothing out of the ordinary, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The second battery was the same design as the one that caught fire.

As United Flight 731 climbed out of Newark with 107 people aboard, the pilot and first officer were startled to find screens that display crucial navigational information were blank or unreadable and radios were dead.

It's happened to most of us. We suddenly wake up and find ourselves disoriented, wondering where we are, and possibly mistaking a light in the distance for something completely different.

About 55 of Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner jets could have a recently discovered flaw in the fuselage, the company said on Wednesday, while reiterating that the world's first carbon-plastic passenger plane is safe to fly.

Australia's Qantas Airways said Wednesday it was temporarily grounding one of its A380 superjumbos after discovering dozens of hairline cracks in its wings during a maintenance inspection.

Airlines are getting rid of these planes — their least-efficient — in response to the high cost of fuel. Delta, United Continental, and other big airlines are expected to park, scrap or sell hundreds of jets with 50 seats or fewer in coming years. Small propeller planes are meeting the same fate.

Delta Air Lines, in a move to replace some of its older single-aisle planes, is expected to place an order for 100 of Boeing's extended-range 737-900 aircraft valued at more than $8 billion.