Boeing 787 batteries: certification assumptions and worst-case failure
The NTSB found certification safety assumptions did not reflect worst-case cell failure effects.
- Programme
- Boeing 787 lithium-ion batteries
- Year
- 2013
- Sector
- Aerospace & Defence
- Outcome
- Fleet grounded after two thermal runaway events
What happened
The Boeing 787 fleet was grounded after two battery thermal runaway events.
What was found
The NTSB found that assumptions in the certification safety assessment did not reflect the effects of a worst-case cell failure.
Engineering lesson
A safety assessment is only as strong as its assumptions about failure. If the worst credible failure is not the one assessed, the analysis can be complete and still wrong.
This is highly relevant to battery-electric aircraft and eVTOL, where energy storage is central to the design and its failure behaviour drives much of the safety case.
The practice this points to
State failure assumptions explicitly in the safety assessment and justify why each represents the worst credible case.
Trace those assumptions to test evidence that demonstrates the assumed failure effects, rather than relying on analysis alone.
Where Kelvora fits
Kelvora is a requirements and assurance platform that keeps safety assumptions visible as explicit items linked to their supporting evidence. It can help engineers see which assumptions rest on analysis only and which have test evidence behind them.
Sources
- NTSB, Aircraft Incident Report AIR-14/01 (2014).