Boeing shares slide after Dreamliner catches fire on London tarmac

An empty Boeing Co. Dreamliner passenger jet belonging to Ethiopian Airlines caught fire Friday while parked on the tarmac at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Boeing shares were down more than 6% as news spread of the latest incident involving Boeing’s beleaguered 787 model.

“We’re aware of the event,” the company said in a statement. “We have Boeing personnel on the ground at Heathrow and are working to fully understand and address this.”

Earlier this year, the Dreamliner was grounded because of malfunctions of the plane’s lithium-ion batteries. Boeing later modified the jets with new batteries, and in April, Ethiopian Airlines became the first carrier to resume flying the aircraft.

On Friday, Heathrow had to close both of its runways, and images on social media showed emergency vehicles at the scene with fire-retardant foam on the ground.

There appeared to be fire damage to the top of the plane near the tail. Previous incidents of fire linked to the lithium-ion batteries have centered near the belly of the plane.

FULL COVERAGE: Boeing’s troubled Dreamliner

Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant and managing director of Leeham Co. in Issaquah, Wash., said the fire doesn’t look to be battery-related.

“From the location of the fire damage, it certainly doesn’t suggest a battery issue,” he said in an email. “The question then becomes: was this a human-induced fire for some reason or a system failure of some kind. Until some details emerge, it’s too soon to speculate the impact to the airplane program or to Boeing.”

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