FAA Likely to OK Boeing Battery Testing in Days

Boeing said on Monday it can move “really fast” to get the Dreamliner back into the skies once the FAA approves the fix. But the FAA faces unusually tough obstacles in approving it for flight – one of them brought on by the agency’s own boss. LaHood promised early in the crisis that the Dreamliner would not resume flying until regulators were “1,000 percent sure” of its safety. As no aircraft is 100 percent safe “it is going to be a challenge for the FAA to dial back from some of the overheated rhetoric,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Virginia. Aboulafia estimated it would take at least four months for the 787 to be cleared to fly if the FAA approves flight tests soon. If flight testing approval takes longer, it could take 6-9 months before the 787 is back in the air.