May 15--The 787 Dreamliner that caught on fire at Boston's Logan International Airport in January -- one of a series of incidents involving the fleet's lithium ion batteries that prompted a worldwide grounding of the new jet -- is back up in the air today.
Boeing took the Japan Airlines-owned 787 up for a test flight this afternoon.
Boeing spokeswoman Loretta Gunter said it's Boeing policy not to discuss flight activities until formal flight plans are filed. But the website planefinder.net showed the 787 took off from Logan, traveled up past Bangor, Maine, swung down through Vermont and New York and was doubling back on the route.
JAL, which has been flying 777s on its Tokyo-Boston route since the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the entire 787 fleet on Jan. 16, is scheduled to resume using the Boeing 787s for its Boston flights on June 1.
Made of an industry-first, lightweight carbon-fiber material, the 787 debuted at Logan in April 2012 when JAL launched its nonstop Tokyo service.
JAL's 787 (tail number JA829J) had been stuck at Logan since the Jan. 6 fire, which occurred after a flight from Toyko landed without incident. Mechanics prepping the plane for a return flight to Japan discovered smoke in its cabin about a half-hour after it landed and passengers and crew already had exited.
The FAA last month approved Boeing's redesign of the plane's battery systems and said 787 flights could resume once airlines made the repairs.
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