June 18--A report by a U.K. safety agency Wednesday confirms the cause of the fire inside an Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner parked at Heathrow last July.

A battery inside a small locator beacon was installed incorrectly, with crossed wires pinched between the device case and the coverplate, causing a short circuit.

The update to the ongoing investigation shows that the supplier of the beacon, Honeywell, identified this precise installation problem and the potential for crossed wires six months earlier and modified the assembly instructions to prevent it from happening in the future.

Yet Honeywell did not inspect the devices already in service or even communicate the issue to aircraft operators and manufacturers.

The report suggests that the fact that it was a Dreamliner that caught fire was bad luck for the troubled program, not the fault of Boeing.

At the time of the incident, there were approximately 3,650 identical batteries in service, "fitted to numerous aircraft types." There were a further 2,900 very similar batteries in service on other aircraft.

No previous in-service overheating incidents had occurred.

After the Heathrow fire, mandatory inspections of the locator beacon device on 787s and other aircraft worldwide revealed a total of 28 with battery wires similarly pinched between case and coverplate.

Of those, only nine had exposed the wire and six of those were fully charged -- indicating that the wire had not made contact with the case to create a short circuit.

Of the remaining three devices with trapped and exposed wires, two failed benignly, protected by built-in safety features designed to kick in when overheating occurs.

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U.K. Safety Agency Confirms Pinched Battery Wiring Caused Ethiopian 787 Fire

June 18--A report by a U.K. safety agency Wednesday confirms the cause of the fire inside an Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner parked at Heathrow last July.

A battery inside a small locator beacon was installed incorrectly, with crossed wires pinched between the device case and the coverplate, causing a short circuit.

The update to the ongoing investigation shows that the supplier of the beacon, Honeywell, identified this precise installation problem and the potential for crossed wires six months earlier and modified the assembly instructions to prevent it from happening in the future.

Yet Honeywell did not inspect the devices already in service or even communicate the issue to aircraft operators and manufacturers.

The report suggests that the fact that it was a Dreamliner that caught fire was bad luck for the troubled program, not the fault of Boeing.

At the time of the incident, there were approximately 3,650 identical batteries in service, "fitted to numerous aircraft types." There were a further 2,900 very similar batteries in service on other aircraft.

No previous in-service overheating incidents had occurred.

After the Heathrow fire, mandatory inspections of the locator beacon device on 787s and other aircraft worldwide revealed a total of 28 with battery wires similarly pinched between case and coverplate.

Of those, only nine had exposed the wire and six of those were fully charged -- indicating that the wire had not made contact with the case to create a short circuit.

Of the remaining three devices with trapped and exposed wires, two failed benignly, protected by built-in safety features designed to kick in when overheating occurs.

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U.K. Safety Agency Confirms Ethiopian 787 Fire Caused by Pinched Battery Wiring

Prime Minister Narendra Modi having made his view on cleanliness obvious, the Union Urban Development Ministry has not only begun cleaning up its own offices, it has identified Delhi as the first stop for a beautification exercise.

On the makeover list is not only ornamental cleaning up of the city, but implementation of measures like decentralised waste collection and management, public toilets, especially for women, pedestrian-friendly walkways, removal of jhuggi-jhonpri clusters and rejuvenation of water bodies.

The Ministry has roped in all the civic agencies and utilities in the city to implement measures that have been announced over time, but only partially implemented like pothole-free roads, removal of debris, plantation drives, and rejuvenation of water bodies among others.

On Monday, Urban Development Secretary Sudhir Krishna read out a list of steps that will be taken over the next six months to beautify Delhi.

To ensure they are implemented, the programmes will be reviewed on a monthly basis.

Agencies like the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) operating in the Capital will get involved in this drive to make Delhi a world-class city. The action plan includes improvement and beautification of roads, parks, roundabouts, pedestrian pathways, etc., Dr. Krishna said.

The drive, which begins Tuesday, will include improving the green cover, beautification of areas around heritage structures, rejuvenation and beautifying water bodies, decentralisation of solid waste disposal system, more public toilets, and incentivising segregation of waste at the household level.

All public buildings will get a fresh coat of paint, security bunkers will no longer be shielded with sandbags, the NDMC has offered to chip in money for modern porta cabins, there will be automatic laundromats at Dhobi Ghats, the DDA will hand over houses to the municipal agencies concerned for upkeep and small crematoriums will be constructed for animals, Dr. Krishna said.

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A lawsuit over the removal of 201 trees from College of San Mateo that upset neighbors over the loss of the natural barrier from noise, traffic and buildings was thrown out of court under a statue of limitations clause.

The California Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the district did notice the public on the December 2010 tree-cutting project and that the appeal of the project was beyond the 180-day statute of limitations. Back in July 2011, neighbors in Hillsborough joined together under the name Citizens For a Green San Mateo and sued the San Mateo County Community College District for failing to conduct an environmental impact review before removing the large trees from the ridgeline of the campus, installing new lights in the parking lots and reconfiguring the roads. The group sought to require an environmental impact review before plans moved forward to cut trees and add new light fixtures, parking lots and roads, which the plaintiff said affected the adjacent neighborhood.

The courts ruling states the Gateway Phase I project and related tree removal activities were within the scope of the project described in the initial study and mitigated negative declaration. Even if the challenged activities did differ substantially from the project described in the initial study and mitigated negative declaration, the lawsuit was filed July 1, 2011, more than 180 days after the removal of trees along West Perimeter began on Dec. 28, 2010.

Their (the plaintiffs) action is still time-barred even under a most generous interpretation of the statute of limitations, the ruling stated.

The district was very pleased with the ruling and is entitled to recover its costs on the appeal.

In their review, the court itemized the multiple public notices that described the tree trimming/removal process-board agendas, board reports, public hearings, newspaper announcements and Web postings, including the public project manual that identified every single tree to be trimmed or removed, Chancellor Ron Galatolo said in a prepared statement. In doing so, we believe the court validated all the actions the college district properly took to inform the public about this matter. As we have stated many times before, the tree trimming, which was part of the campuswide improvements at College of San Mateo, was undertaken to remove the dead, diseased and nonnative trees on campus which had been identified as a potential fire hazard.

The district removed the trees under the supervision of an arborist as part of a woodland/wildfire management program, said Barbara Christensen, director of community and government relations for the district. Trees were removed for the following reasons: 48 percent were a fire hazard; 30 percent were diseased, dying or dead; 7 percent were impinging on native trees; 3 percent had poor structural integrity; and 11 percent opened up scenic corridors.

This involved removing and pruning non-native and highly flammable species such as eucalyptus and diseased or dead trees, as well as general ground cleanup to mitigate fire ladder effects, Christensen previously said, adding the clearing allows native species, like oaks, to grow.

In light of the ruling, there is no need to examine the districts related claims that the Citizens For a Green San Mateo failed to properly exhaust their administrative remedies, as well as the issues relating to supplemental review, the ruling stated.

Similarly, we do not reach the districts claim of mootness, which is based on the fact that the challenged tree removal activities have long since been complete, and the trees have been or will be replaced in accordance with the mitigation measures set forth in the initial study and mitigated negative declaration, it stated.

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Lawsuit over CSM tree removal thrown out: Appeals court states suit was beyond statute of limitations

The trees on the left side of the map are to be removed.

image credit: Supplied photo

Despite recent concerns about trees slated to be cut, Cumberland council gave the official go-ahead needed for the Cumberland school merging project to move forward.

Council voted last week to adopt a bylaw to close and dispose of the section of Ulverston Avenue between Egremont Road and First Street, running between the elementary and junior schools.

The Comox Valley School District plans to turn the road into green space with playground equipment as part of the project to merge the two schools into a learning campus by September.

Part of the plan includes removing a number of trees from the east side of the property next to the elementary school to create space for a drop-off and pick-up loop. About 40 trees were marked, and some students and community members expressed concern about cutting down trees on the site.

School district representatives attended last weeks council meeting and said five of the trees slated for removal are big, healthy trees, but many are small and unhealthy.

These trees, if we dont take them out, we wont have sufficient space to do the proper drive-through park and drop-off for the kids, district director of operations Ian Heselgrave told council. If we had a way we could not have a (parking) lot here, we would certainly pursue that.

District secretary treasurer Russell Horswill added the drive-through loop is important to student safety and must be located near the entrance to the elementary building, as parental practice is to drop young children off as close to the school doors as possible. Without the loop, parents would likely stop on Egremont Street, which would cause congestion there, he said.

As well, the loop couldnt go on the north side of the school near Egremont, as this spot is slated to house a playing field at a later date as part of the long-term plans for the site, he added.

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Council approves tree removal at Cumberland school

hide captionAustralian celebrity chef and author Kylie Kwong (left) teaches a cooking workshop at Yaama Dhiyaan, a cooking and hospitality school for at-risk aborginal youth.

Australian celebrity chef and author Kylie Kwong (left) teaches a cooking workshop at Yaama Dhiyaan, a cooking and hospitality school for at-risk aborginal youth.

If you teach an aboriginal man (or woman) to make a cappuccino, can you feed his career for a lifetime?

That's the hope at Yaama Dhiyaan, a cooking and hospitality school for at-risk indigenous young people in Australia.

Students there are learning the skills to be cooks, restaurant and hotel workers, and caterers. The school is also helping to reconnect them to their culture, disrupted when many of their grandparents were kidnapped off the land, forced into missionary schools and denied the right to vote until the 1960s.

Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo is an aboriginal elder who heads the school. She is from the Gamillera tribe and grew up on a reservation about 500 miles from Sydney in New South Wales.

hide captionAunty Beryl Van-Oploo heads Yaama Dhiyaan, the first cooking and hospitality training college for at-risk indigenous young people in Australia.

Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo heads Yaama Dhiyaan, the first cooking and hospitality training college for at-risk indigenous young people in Australia.

"They asked me to name the school," says Aunty Beryl, "so I thought I might as well say 'hello' in my own Yuwaalaraay language. Yaama means 'hello' and Dhiyaan means 'family.' So it's 'Hello family and friends' when you come here."

Among the skills the students learn at Yaama Dhiyaan is how to make cappuccinos and other specialty coffee drinks.

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In Yabbies And Cappuccino, A Culinary Lifeline For Aboriginal Youth

The north half of that section of Monroe Street was annexed into the city, according to Public Works Director Gary Butts, and the city will own the improvements once they are completed.

That may take some time. On Monday morning, the street was an uneven dirt trail and no work was being done there. No machinery or workers were present.

The apartment complexis being built by the Summit Housing Group and managed by Highland Property Management, both based in Missoula, Mont.

At the June 2 Powell City Council meeting, Water/ Wastewater Superintendent Bill Winters said the developer and Sammons Excavation had discovered the street was not being built to city standards and had to be redone. The two parties were in dispute over who was responsible for the additional cost, Winters said.

Ty Sammons, the owner of Sammons Excavation, said he halted work on June 10 and pulled his equipment.

There was a discrepancy in the plans, Sammons said. The engineer that designed that job only called for a certain amount of structural fill under the street thats going in. I dont know if someone was trying to pull a fast one or they overlooked it.

The city inspected the job more than a month ago, he said, and ordered the amount of fill to be doubled. The city checks on projects throughout the development for compliance to city specifications, Butts said.

Another problem developed when an active clay tile drain was located under Monroe Street. It was not in his initial plans, Sammons said.

The tile drain had to be pulled up so a sewer main could be placed there, and then the drain had to be reinstalled. That turned a two-day job into a nine-day project.

It was a nightmare from that point on, Sammons said.

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Road blocked: East Monroe Street extension halted by squabble over dollars

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