Data from the flight recorder retrieved from the Japan Air Lines Boeing 787 that caught fire on January 7 while parked at Boston Logan International Airport shows that the airplane’s APU battery did not charge beyond its design limit of 32 volts, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators have disassembled the lithium-ion battery in question, an eight-cell unit made by Japan’s GS Yuasa, in an effort to help determine the cause of the first of two separate battery failures that led to the grounding of all 50 Dreamliners Boeing has delivered to seven airlines around the world. Japanese authorities have yet to determine whether or not the battery failure that forced an emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways 787 in western Japan last Wednesday had overcharged as widely reported. That incident prompted both ANA and JAL to ground their 787s, and preceded a mandated suspension of Dreamliner service in the U.S. and around the globe.
