If I'm reading the reports correctly, I'm amazed that Boeing are sticking with Lithium.
In fact, the more I read the more amazed I am; the problem appears to stem from an internal battery issue (Dendrites/Whiskers) or whatever, it's irrelevant - the fault lies within the battery.
This appears to be exacerbated by the physical design of the battery, if one cells fails catastrophically, the proximity of the cells causes adjacent cells to overheat and combust.
IMHO, this isn't fail-safe engineering and shouldn't be certified as such by Boeing, the FAA or anyone else.
Good luck to them if they think that encapsulating the battery in a (better) fireproof box as a short term measure will be regarded as a suitable workaround, Heath-Robinson springs to mind (For our friends across the pond, substitute Rube Goldberg for H-R).
C'mon Boeing, you can do better than this,
Last edited by Momoe; 18th Feb 2013 at 22:14.