A Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner” operated by the Polish airline LOT was forced to make an emergency landing at Glasgow today after the crew reported a smell of smoke in the cabin. The aircraft, which was en route from Chicago to Warsaw and had 248 people on board, landed safely at 11:35 this morning.
Emergency crews checked out the airplane and deemed it safe. The pilot then taxied on to a runway stand and all the passengers were safely and orderly disembarked. LOT will send another aircraft to pick them up.
The state of the art 787 has been plagued by problems.
Last year, the entire fleet was grounded worldwide for nearly 3 months after several aircraft developed overheating problems in their lithium-ion batteries, including an actual fire on board an All Nippon 787 in January 2013. Boeing redesigned the batteries and their containment systems to ensure any battery fire, should it occur, would not jeopardize the entire aircraft.