MISCONCEPTION
Hi RR
You are proceeding along a path dictated by your preconception of the cause.
There are two causes here, as I see it. One is PROCURING, the other is PROXIMAL.
Your focus is on the proximal, aggravating cause. The smoking gun. The Electrical system.
There is a procuring cause, the Lithium Ion Battery. Procuring means 'Created'.
Proximal means 'aggravated to disclosure'. I am not sure the 'system' played any part at all. By the time the fire was uncontrolled, the system likely could not have had any effect on controlling it. Certainly not in preventing it.
RUNAWAY. OUT OF CONTROL, CANNOT BE CONTAINED, Land immediately, call the fire department.
That one cell could experience thermal runaway was a given, and the standard beyond which no further runaway would be tolerated.
That is what happened. NTSB told us that. "The fire started in one cell, #6".
That should have been the end of it. One cell self destructs, smoke vents, case contains the incident.
No monitoring can arrest a thermal runaway. Monitoring was intended to prevent Propagation. Boeing prepared for that, per the regulations.
It didn't work as designed. Because the design was insufficient?
NO. It did not work because something happened that exceeded the design's limits.
Boeing did everything just right. Just not enough of it.
Boeing knew what happened before the Fire Department arrived. And they have been working on re-certifying the new system since that day. Probably way before that.
I will be perfectly happy if Boeing provides a system that prevents PROPAGATION. Runaway int the problem.
imho
Last edited by Lyman; 12th Feb 2013 at 16:50.