Japan Airlines issues statement following Monday's fire

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – Japan Airlines issued a statement on Tuesday regarding the fire that broke out in a cabin of an empty Boeing 787 Dreamliner after it had landed at Logan International Airport in Boston.

Fire crews responded to Gate E8 Monday morning for an electrical fire. The plane was parked and the passengers had already disembarked when the fire was discovered.

In the statement, Japan Airlines says it is working closely with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other government agencies to get to the bottom of the fire that was traced back to a battery used to start the auxiliary power unit (APU).

"As is standard practice within the industry, it would be premature to discuss additional details at this stage as the investigation is ongoing. However, nothing that we've seen in this case indicates a relationship to any previous 787 power system events, which involved power panel faults elsewhere in the aft electrical equipment bay. Information about the prior events has been shared with the NTSB and they are aware of the details."

The statement comes on the heels of another issue that occurred on a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 Tuesday.

Another 787 Boeing, which is Boeing's newest plane, was towed back to the gate for further evaluation after about 40 gallons of fuel spilled. At the time, the plane had 178 passengers and 11 crew members on board.

A JAL spokeswoman said the crew reported a "mechanical issue" before returning to the gate.

The first 787 Boeing was delivered in late 2011. In November 2010, a test flight had to make an emergency landing after an in-flight electrical fire. The fire delayed flight tests for several weeks while Boeing investigated.

Last month, a United Airlines 787 flying from Houston to Newark, N.J., diverted to New Orleans because of a mechanical issue. No one was injured.

JAL began nonstop service between Boston and Tokyo's Narita Airport using the new Boeing 787 in April.

Cox Media Group