Honeywell said Monday that it has joined the investigation into last week’s fire on a 787 at London’s Heathrow Airport amid reports that investigators are eyeing whether its emergency transmitter played a role in the incident.
The emergency location transmitter sends a signal with the plane’s location if it’s involved in a crash. It’s meant to help rescuers find the plane.
The fire on a parked Ethiopian Airlines 787 Friday brought back memories of two smoldering lithium-ion batteries in January that caused authorities to ground the 787 worldwide for more than three months. Boeing redesigned the systems that include those large, powerful batteries to win government approval so 787s could fly again.
The emergency location transmitter uses a lithium-manganese battery. That is a type of lithium-ion battery, but with different chemistry that is considered more stable than the batteries that were an issue in the grounding.
The U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch said on Saturday that the most recent fire occurred well away from the lithium-ion batteries. Published reports Monday said investigators were examining whether the transmitter could have caused or contributed to the fire.
