The root cause of problems to batteries on Boeing 787 Dreamliners which led to all the aircraft being grounded may never be discovered.
Larry Loftis, general manager of the company’s 787 division, said: “It is not uncommon not to have found the single root cause. So industry best practice is to look at all the potential causes and address all of them.”
He was speaking in London after US regulators approved a new battery design for the aircraft, paving the way for the 50 grounded Dreamliners to resume service.
Loftis said Boeing had addressed all “potential causes” and expected the 787 to remain popular.
He said he did not expect the issue to have any lasting negative impact on the popularity of the Dreamliner among either airlines or passengers.
Boeing has continued to make five 787s a month, a number about to increase that to seven, raising output to 10 a month by the end of the year.
A total of 300 Boeing engineers, pooled into 10 teams, have started fitting replacement batteries and battery systems to the 787s in service around the world, and to aircraft that have been built by Boeing since January.
Loftis said it would take five days per plane to do the necessary work, and that it would be carried out by the order in which airlines first received the planes. All Nippon Airlines will be the first to get its 787s fixed.
Boeing is likely to release details of how much fixing the battery problem has cost the company when it releases its latest quarterly results tomorrow, the BBC reported.