Pump glitch hits Norwegian operated Dreamliner

Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle said Monday it encountered a new problem with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, forcing it to stop 70 passengers from boarding a transatlantic flight. The incident, this time linked to a hydraulic pump on a plane flying from New York to Oslo, is the latest in a series of technical glitches besetting two Dreamliners recently acquired by the company. "Due to a problem with the hydraulic pump, the New York-Oslo flight landed today (Monday) four and a half hours late," Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson, a spokeswoman for the carrier, told AFP. "(The problem) also led to weight limitations. Seventy passengers were denied boarding and all their luggage was unloaded from the plane, which took off (Sunday) with 170 passengers," she said. The passengers who were left behind in New York were put up in a hotel and were expected to be sent home in two groups, to Stockholm on Tuesday and to Oslo on Wednesday, she said. Boeing technicians were working Monday to solve the technical problem, which also delayed by several hours the departure of a flight to Bangkok with the aircraft on the same day. Norwegian has ordered a total of eight Boeing 787 Dreamliners, of which two have been delivered so far, with a delay. Holmbergh Jacobsson said the company had not yet decided whether it would seek compensation from Boeing. The Dreamliner has encountered several serious difficulties since entering operation, especially with its batteries, causing the entire fleet to be grounded for about four months earlier this year.