Boeing Co. said late Wednesday that debris was likely to have caused an onboard electrical fire on a test flight of 787 Dreamliner this month.
The company said the fire began as a short circuit or an electrical arc in the P100 power distribution panel and was most likely caused by “foreign debris.”
The panel’s failure led to a fire in the surrounding insulation material under the cabin floor and caused some critical systems aboard the plane to stop working.
Boeing has said that the emergency backup systems performed as expected.
To fix the problem, the company said it will make minor design changes to the panel to improve protection and will update the system software that manages and protects power distribution.
The P100 panel is one of five major power distribution panels on the 787. It receives power from the left engine and distributes it to an array of systems.
Boeing said it is assessing the time required to complete the design changes and software updates and that a revised 787 program schedule is expected to be done in the next few weeks.
Boeing shares led the Dow Jones Industrial Average Wednesday, gaining 2.9 percent, to $65.41. Cowen & Co. said in note that the aerospace giant may be able to deliver the plane faster than expected after suspending test flights, Bloomberg reported.
