Boeing’s Dreamliner nightmare gets worse as Japan reveals more on faults

Boeing’s headache over its Dreamliner jets worsened today, as Japan’s transport ministry revealed more damning details of its investigation into faults with the model and United Airlines extended its grounding of the jets.

Japan’s transport ministry said it found fuel leaks in the 787 Dreamliners were caused by improper paint jobs, which caused a switch controlling fuel movement between tanks to fail.

Inadequate taping led to cracks in cockpit glass and a faulty part resulted in problems with braking.

The details come the day after the ministry announced lithium-ion batteries in the planes had been improperly wired.

Meanwhile America’s United Airlines said that it would not put Dreamliners into the air until at least June 5, although it tentatively scheduled the jet for use in the postponed launch of its Denver-to-Tokyo route on May 12, pending resolution of problems with the plane.

Authorities around the world have grounded the lightweight planes following problems with the model and Japan’s transport ministry launched its extensive probe into the 787s after two incidents last month involving Dreamliners operated by All Nippon Airways.