Is Boeings Dreamliner Safe?

[sp1214]

This new composite Boeing aircraft called the Dreamliner is due to come into service this year and production is well under way. A letter to the Daily Mail this week from an aircraft engineer of 30 years standing has suggested that it is not. He quotes the event that took place only a few days ago that was highly publicised of a normal Boeing plane that had to make a forced landing soon after taking off because it had been hit by lightning. He went on to say a plane with a composite fuselage would not be able to disipate the lightning strike and in similar circumstances would blow a hole in the fuselage, a rapid decrease in air pressure with bodies falling out of the sky. Do you believe he is right? His comments relect those of a sacked Boeing employee.
Whether the plane is safe or not should these problems be listened to as all that is at stake is the cancellation fees and no lives have been lost.
For the technically minded the way lighting is handled by a plane is the well known phenonemon of 'Faradays Cage' found widely on internet searches.

[honest_joe]

In one word, NO! This plane is made by a hotch potch of manufacturing companies spread throughout the world. When they tried to assemble one recently at Seattle the parts did not match and a gaping hole was found in the fuselage.

[honest_joe]

I do not understand the theory behind Faradasy's cage. Why does the lighting not enter the cage or in this case the fuselage?

http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/~kskeldon/PubSci/ exhibits/E3/