The investigation led by the U.K’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch into the fire on the Ethiopian Airlines 787 in London is continuing. Initial indications suggesred the fire began in the area of the Emergency Locator Transmitter ( (ELT). Inspections have been made subsequently, on the Honeywell manufactured ELTs across the 787 fleets.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Transport Canada, the aviation regulator iin that country inspected one of the Honeywell facilities that manufacture the ELT, near Toronto.
Unlike many of the advanced technological features on the 787, the ELT is a standard off the shelf piece of equipment. It is found on many other plane types. Every 787 has an ELT installed on it, although each airline has placed it in a different location on the plane.
Honeywell said yesterday, that should the 787 short circuit and overheat, then a fail safe mechanism should kick in. Did that mechanism fail on the Ethiopian 787? Fundamentally,Why did the fire start? Why have three 787s had fires start for no obvious reasons? Is there some random factor that has yet to be discovered? Or has the problem been solved?
Still too many questions with no answers.
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Is the ELT hooked up to the 787 electrical system in any way? Trickle charging? Communication or control? Or is it completely self-contained? How does it know when to start transmitting?