UPDATED 14:35 PM EST, February 7, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government should reassess its safety approval of the Boeing 787 lithium ion batteries, the nation's top accident investigator said Thursday.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said the board's investigation of last month's battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 "Dreamliner" while it was parked in Boston shows the fire started with multiple short-circuits in one of the battery's eight cells. That created an uncontrolled chemical reaction known as "thermal runaway" and spread to the rest of the cells, she said.
