Boeing 787's may lose control mid-air due to software bug

The American Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has issued a warning about Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, stating that a software glitch in the jets’ systems may suddenly shut all electrical power to the plane mid-flight, therefore causing pilots to lose control.

"We are issuing this AD [Airworthiness Directive] to prevent loss of all AC electrical power, which could result in loss of control of the aeroplane," the regulatory agency said in its warning.

The glitch, which was discovered in laboratory tests, involves the Dreamliners’ electrical generators falling into a failsafe mode every 248 days or about 8 months.

After that many days of constant power usage, the plane’s four generator control units will fail simultaneously. If this should happen during a take-off, landing or mid-flight, the results could be disastrous.

A temporary solution is to shut down the systems from time to time. According to Boeing’s records, all the jets in the fleet have been powered off and turned back on at some point, as part of routine maintenance, so there shouldn’t be any imminent danger of a plane losing power. For the time being however, Boeing is working on fixing the bug.

This warning is the most recent in the 787’s rather sketchy record. A battery fire in 2013, grounded the entire fleet, an incident the National Transportation Safety Board held both the FAA and Boeing responsible for.

Also in 2012, security experts found that a vulnerable chip in the fleets systems may be used to hack into the planes controls from remote locations.