Boeing might consider customer acceptance issues (both passenger and airline buyer) if they continue with lithium ion batteries.
(I'm not a battery expert, so my remarks are based on hearsay and hunch.)
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I spoke to the Fire Marshall a few days ago and he said he's getting lots of calls about this 2006 incident that burned down the companys three storey building...
I had forgotten about this....
Securaplane fire cause unknown
By Brian P. Nanos, ExpNews@ExplorerNews.com
November 15, 2006 - One week after Oro Valley-based Securaplane Technologies lost its administrative building in a three-alarm fire, investigators are months away from zeroing in on the fire's cause.
Despite the loss of a building he values at $2 million, Securaplane’s President Dave Daniels claims the company is in a good position to rebuild.
A fire the morning of Nov. 7 destroyed the company's property at 10800 N. Mavinee Drive and disrupted the company's administration, sales and marketing, products support and research and development offices. The company's 138 employees also temporarily lost use of their landline phone and Internet systems.
According to Daniels, each of those offices either has little effect on the company's current business obligations or is easily transferable. Employees with offices in the burnt building are now all working in the company's other building located just across North Mavinee Drive.
Daniels said the fire had little affect on the company's ability to make its upcoming product shipments on time.
One week after the fire, investigators had yet to determine its cause. This week, inspectors representing the company's insurer, the town of Oro Valley and Golder Ranch Fire District were at the scene attempting to discover the fire's cause.
“It's not a quick issue,” Golder Ranch fire inspector Steve Hobarenko said after the first day of inspections. “It's something that's going to play out over a number of months.”
Witnesses told firefighters that the fire started in the area the company stores batteries. Early investigation on the scene confirmed the fire's location, but the cause will not be determined until all possibilities are ruled out, Hobarenko said.
John Sullivan, community services division chief of the Golder Ranch Fire District, said investigation into the cause of the fire is focusing on the possibilities that it was caused by a defective battery, defective battery charging equipment or worker error.
I think the final report blamed an improper test set-up, but the fire was large enough to destroy the building.
There was a fire on a UPS stretch 8 (DC8). They made it down safely but the entire top off the cargo compartment burned off. A total write off. They found that it was a Li battery fire in a bunch of laptops.
Google UPS DC 8 fire, 2006, flight 1307.