Japan Airlines (JAL) has withdrawn Dreamliners from service on the Tokyo-Delhi and Tokyo-Singapore routes following warnings about the risk of ice forming on Boeing’s new 747-8 and 787 planes.
Altogether, 15 airlines have been warned about an issue affecting some types of engines made by General Electric when planes fly near high-level thunderstorms.
There have been six incidents when aircraft powered by GE engines lost power at high altitude, the BBC reports.
The Boeing 747-8 series and the new 787 Dreamliner are the only types of aircraft affected by the high-altitude icing issue.
The new warning was given to airlines including Lufthansa, United Airlines and Japan Airlines.
It says aircraft with the affected engines – GE’s GEnx – must not be flown within 50 nautical miles of thunderstorms that may contain ice crystals.
A GE spokesman told Reuters the aviation industry was experiencing “a growing number of ice-crystal icing encounters in recent years as the population of large commercial airliners has grown, particularly in tropical regions of the world”.
He said GE and Boeing were hoping to eliminate the problem by modifying the engine control system software.
The 787 Dreamliner remains popular with airlines despite suffering a series of technical and safety problems in recent months.
