Q&A: Scramble for vaccine as flu season heats up


WASHINGTON (AP) — Missed flu-shot day at the office last fall? And all those "get vaccinated" ads? A scramble for shots is under way as late-comers seek protection from a miserable flu strain already spreading through much of the country.


Federal health officials said Friday that there is still some flu vaccine available and it's not too late to benefit from it. But people may have to call around to find a clinic with shots still on the shelf, or wait a few days for a new shipment.


"We're hearing of spot shortages," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Colorado offers an example. Kaiser Permanente, which has 535,000 members in the state, stopped giving flu shots this week. But it expected to resume vaccinations when new shipments arrive, expected this weekend.


Some questions and answers about flu vaccines:


Q: Are we running out of vaccine?


A: It's January — we shouldn't have a lot left. The traditional time to get vaccinated is in the fall, so that people are protected before influenza starts spreading.


Indeed, manufacturers already have shipped nearly 130 million doses to doctors' offices, drugstores and wholesalers, out of the 135 million doses they had planned to make for this year's flu season. At least 112 million have been used so far.


The nation's largest manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, said Friday that it still has supplies of two specialty vaccines, a high-dose shot for seniors, and an under-the-skin shot for certain adults, available for immediate shipment. But it also is working to eke out a limited supply of its traditional shots — some doses that it initially hadn't packaged into syringes, said spokesman Michael Szumera. They should be available late this month.


And MedImmune, the maker of the nasal spray vaccine FluMist, said it has 620,000 extra doses available.


Q: Can't they just make more?


A: No. Flu vaccine is complicated to brew, with supplies for each winter made months in advance and at the numbers expected to sell. Although health officials recommend a yearly flu vaccination for nearly everybody, last year 52 percent of children and just 39 percent of adults were immunized. Most years, leftover doses have to be thrown out.


Q: Should I still hunt for a vaccine?


A: It does take two weeks for full protection to kick in. Still, health officials say it's a good idea to be vaccinated even this late, especially for older people, young children and anyone with medical conditions such as heart or lung diseases that put them at high risk of dangerous flu complications. Flu season does tend to be worst in January and February, but it can run through March.


Q: I heard that a new flu strain is spreading. Does the vaccine really work?


A: Flu strains constantly evolve, the reason that people need an updated vaccine every year. But the CDC says this year's is a good match to the types that are circulating, including a new kind of the tough H3N2 strain. That family tends to be harsher than other flu types — and health officials warned last fall that it was coming, and meant this winter would likely be tougher than last year's flu season, the mildest on record.


Q: But don't some people get vaccinated and still get sick?


A: Flu vaccine never is 100 percent effective, and unfortunately it tends to protect younger people better than older ones. But the CDC released a study Friday showing that so far this year, the vaccine appears 62 percent effective, meaning it's working about as well as it has in past flu seasons.


While that may strike some people as low, Frieden said it's the best protection available. "It's a glass 62 percent full," he said. "It's well worth the effort."


Q: What else can I do?


A: Wash your hands often, and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Viruses can spread by hand, not just through the air. Also, cough in your elbow, not your hand. When you're sick, protect others by staying home.


And people who are in those high-risk groups should call a doctor if they develop symptoms, added CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. They might be prescribed antiviral medication, which works best if given within the first 48 hours of symptoms.


___


AP Medical Writers Lindsey Tanner and Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.


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Globe-nominated foreign filmmakers discuss craft


LOS ANGELES (AP) — The makers of three Golden Globe- and Oscar-nominated foreign films shared the secrets of their craft — and admiration for one another — at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's 10th annual Foreign Film Symposium.


Oscar-nominated Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom moderated the panel featuring "Kon-Tiki" directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning of Norway, "A Royal Affair" director Nikolaj Arcel of Denmark and Austrian director Michael Haneke, whose film "Amour" also earned Oscar nods for picture and director this week.


"It's been a very good week," Haneke said through an interpreter before Saturday's symposium on the Los Angeles campus of Loyola Marymount University.


Hallstrom, whose film "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" is up for best picture at the Golden Globes, asked his filmmaking colleagues detailed questions about their approach to the craft during the 75-minute symposium. Do you rehearse scenes? Do you use editing to alter performances? Do you keep the camera rolling between takes? Do you act out the scenes in your head before directing your actors?


Haneke said he rarely rehearses his actors and doesn't allow them to improvise. Through storyboarding, he knows exactly where the performers need to be in each scene.


"Because I wrote it myself, I have to, in a way, act it out," he said. "Otherwise there would be nothing."


The other filmmakers said they also keep rehearsals to a minimum to preserve the spontaneity of the scenes.


Asked which contemporary filmmakers they admire, the 40-year-old Arcel pointed to Haneke and said, "This guy."


Sandberg, 41, and Roenning, 40, also said they've been inspired by their colleagues on stage.


"I'm sitting between Haneke and Hallstrom," Roenning said incredulously.


Haneke refused to answer, because he said whomever he neglects to mention would be upset.


The 70th annual Golden Globe Awards will be presented Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and broadcast live on NBC.


___


AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .


___


Online:


www.goldenglobes.org


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The story behind Tribune's broken deal































































At the end of 2007, real estate tycoon Sam Zell took control of Tribune Co. in a deal that promised to re-energize the media conglomerate. But the company struggled under the huge debt burden the deal created, and less than a year later, it filed for bankruptcy.

One of Chicago's most iconic companies — parent to the Chicago Tribune — was propelled into a protracted and in many ways unprecedented odyssey through Chapter 11 reorganization.

On Dec. 31, after four years, Tribune Co. finally emerged from court protection under new ownership, but at a heavy cost. The company's value was diminished, its reputation was tarnished and its ability to respond to market opportunities during its long bankruptcy was constrained.

Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy saga began as an era of superheated Wall Street deal-making fueled by cheap money was coming to an end. The company's tale is emblematic of the American financial crisis itself, in which a seemingly insatiable appetite for speculative risk using exotic investment instruments helped trigger an economic collapse of historic proportions.

Tribune reporters Michael Oneal and Steve Mills, in a four-part series that begins today, tell the story of Tribune Co.'s journey into and through bankruptcy, throwing a spotlight on the key decisions and missed opportunities that marked a perilous time in the history of the company, the media industry and the economy.



Read the full story, "Part one: Zell's big gamble," as a digitalPLUS member.
To view videos and photos and for a look at the rest of the series visit, chicagotribune.com/brokendeal.





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Gary man sentenced to 80 years in abuse, death of son

Lake County Indiana Sheriff John Buncich and Bernard Eriks, grandfather of 13-year-old murder victim Christian Choate, talk about the sentencing of Riley Choate for the murder.









A Gary, Ind. man charged with keeping his 13-year-old son in a dog cage, then beating the boy to death and burying the body in a shallow grave near the family’s home in a trailer park was sentenced this morning to 80 years in prison.

Riley Choate, 40, entered a plea deal with Lake County, Ind., prosecutors this month with an agreed sentence that spares him some 40 years off the 120-year sentence he faced on charges tied to years of brutal abuse of his son, Christian, that led to the boy’s death in 2009.






The boy, who weighed less than 50 pounds when he died, had lived the last two years of his life confined to a 3-foot high dog cage, and was beaten regularly by his father.

“I can’t conceive of any set of facts charging neglect that could be any worse,” prosecutor Michael Woods said in court in Crown Point this morning.

Lake County Superior Court Judge Diane Boswell said there was plenty of blame to go around and several people had failed Christian.

“The pain and the suffering, the degradation this baby went through for two years of his life is incomprehensible,” Boswell said. “I can’t imagine any  circumstance when a parent would allow this.”

Choate addressed the judge briefly before the sentencing. “All my actions will haunt me forever. I loved my son,” he said.

Christian’s body was discovered by police investigators in 2011, after his older sister told relatives the boy had died two years earlier after Choate punched him repeatedly.

Choate and his wife, Kimberly Kubina, loaded the boy’s body into a tote, then buried him under concrete beneath a shed with a Bible laid across his chest. They told the other children — and, initially, police investigators -- that Christian had run away. The family moved to Kentucky not long after Christian died.

The sister, one of as many as 10 children living with Choate and his wife and co-defendant, Kimberly Kubina, in a single-wide trailer on the west side of Gary, had been removed from school in the Gary suburb of Merrillville in 2007 to be homeschooled. Kubina later admitted the children were pulled out of school because Choate’s abuse of the boy was escalating and Christian often was badly bruised.

The girl was charged with taking care of her brother, whom Choate and Kubina said had to be confined after he was caught “molesting” his younger step brother.

Christian initially was confined to a bedroom, then a bathroom, then was tied to a bed frame. After he managed to escape, he was locked in a dog cage they purchased from a neighbor. The boy was fed noodles twice a day, and given leftovers from dinner. The girl admitted she also beat and choked her brother regularly, and that she endured beatings at Choate’s hands as well.

Child welfare officials were infrequent visitors to the family’s trailer park, and had investigated abuse allegations against Choate involving children other than Christian. A neighbor said she twice called police, and in turn the Indiana Department of Child and Family Services, with concerns, but never saw an investigator enter the family’s trailer.

On April, 4, 2009, Christian’s sister told police the boy refused to eat, and an enraged Choate punched Christian “full force” several times in the head and threw him back into his cage, court records state. Christian died the following day. The Lake County coroner’s office listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, and a skull fracture.

Kubina, who divorced Choate from jail in 2011, entered a plea deal with prosecutors and agreed to cooperate in Choate’s prosecution. She is set to be sentenced in February on child neglect charges. She has told prosecutors she sometimes stopped Choate from beating Christian but never went to authorities to report the abuse because she feared losing custody of other children in the home.

Choate himself won custody of Christian and his sister in 2004. The children’s biological mother said she hadn’t seen the children since 2004.

Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter. Andy Grimm is a Tribune reporter.

agrimm@tribune.com

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Analysis: Nokia's results breakthrough buys it time and options


HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia's stronger-than-expected quarterly results mean the mobile phone maker now has breathing space and better options to help it claw back a place alongside Samsung and Apple in the smartphone market.


The Finnish handset maker, whose fall from market leader to loss leader was so bad its chief executive said two years ago it was on a "burning platform", may even be in a position to list or sell its Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) arm at a premium, instead of having to auction assets cheaply as had been feared.


Nokia's improved performance also gives it time to carry on marketing the new Lumia handsets on which it is staking future smartphone success, which were launched in November and have recently gone on sale in crucial markets like China and India.


"Reasonable Lumia volumes and much better margins and guidance in devices could reframe the debate on the longterm sustainability of the handset manufacturing business," said Morgan Stanley analyst Francois Meunier.


NSN looks an attractive proposition both for public investors and private equity firms now that it is posting higher margins and profits on the back of cost cuts and improved sales of higher-margin network equipment gear to operators investing in faster 4G - "fourth generation" - wireless broadband.


NSN's underlying margin was between 13 and 15 percent in the third quarter, beating the forecast 8 percent and helping Nokia trounce market expectations when it posted numbers on Thursday.


Cash from the sale or listing of NSN could then be ploughed back in to investment in Lumia.


Michael Schroder at Finnish investment group FIM and other analysts estimate the business to be worth well above 5 billion euros, although Nokia owns only half of it and could also choose to retain a stake in it.


"A listing could happen sooner than markets expect," said Inderes analyst Mikael Rautanen, adding that he was surprised by the rapid turnaround at the unit which had been struggling to improve profitability. "Going back 6 months, no one would've believed it could have such good margins."


TIME TO GROW


Investors have been growing impatient in the two years since chief executive Stephen Elop announced Nokia's controversial switch to Microsoft Windows software with the statement that its home-grown platform was burning and a drastic change was needed.


With the two-year transition period identified then by Elop almost over, and Nokia's cash position worsening, some had started to make noises about Elop having to leave if no improvement could be identified soon.


Nokia's net cash fell to 3.6 billion euros in September from 4.2 billion in June. Its latest cash position, along with other final details of its fourth quarter results, is due January 24.


However analysts say Nokia's cash position is now less of a concern than a few months ago, helped also by an issuance of 750 million euros in convertible bonds. The company has also been hard at work selling off assets including its headquarters and pushing to win royalty payments on its vast patent portfolio.


Morgan Stanley's Meunier said the stronger performance may mean Nokia's liquidity improved by 550 to 650 million euros in the fourth quarter. He still recommends an "underweight" in the shares due to an uncertain earnings outlook.


If the market gains more confidence in the survival of Nokia's mobile phone business, analysts said, its shares could rise further.


Since Thursday's announcement, Nokia shares have jumped around 13 percent, but are still below some analysts' price targets.


The stock closed at 3.396 euros on Friday, below the 4.00 euro target by Nordea analyst Sami Sarkamies, who rates them a "buy".


Sarkamies has been studying various scenarios for Nokia's mobile phone business, ranging from a come-back in smartphones to worse outcomes. He said that even in the worst-case scenario of being forced to exit the mobile phone business by the strength of Google's Android phones, Nokia should be valued at 2.7 euros.


Sarkamies joked that Thursday's announcement was Nokia saying "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" - a phrase coined by another Finnish great, Formula One driver Kimi Raikkonen last year as he brushed off his engineers' advice during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.


Raikkonen went on to win the race.



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Alabama's Lacy, Milliner, Fluker enter NFL draft


TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama tailback Eddie Lacy, cornerback Dee Milliner and right tackle D.J. Fluker are entering the NFL draft after helping lead the Crimson Tide to a second straight national title.


Lacy and Milliner announced their plans to skip their senior seasons Friday at a news conference. Fluker couldn't be there for the announcement because he was traveling.


It's another exodus of talented underclassmen for a team that has won three of the past four national championships. Most of the four first-round picks in each of the past two drafts that left Alabama were underclassmen.


"I appreciate what they've done for the University of Alabama but we also acknowledge the fact that from a business standpoint, these guys are making good decisions about their future and what they can do," coach Nick Saban said.


Unlike recent groups of departing juniors from Alabama, only Milliner is pegged as a sure first-round pick.


He was a Jim Thorpe Award finalist and unanimous All-American after recording two interceptions and 22 pass deflections. He and guard Chance Warmack, who was a senior, are projected as the Tide's top current prospects.


"I think while I was here, I met all the goals and team affirmations that I set for myself as a freshman by winning a championship, becoming an All-American, just being part of a team that always loved to win," Milliner said. "I think I fulfilled all my goals and am ready and prepared to go to the next level."


Lacy was MVP of the national championship game against Notre Dame after rushing for 140 yards and scoring two touchdowns. He said he wasn't 100 percent healthy all season until the title game Monday night, but Lacy still ran for 1,322 yards and 17 touchdowns while averaging 6.5 yards per carry.


"We don't have a lot of years to play this position, so you have to go while you can," Lacy said. "I would love to come back. This is a great place. We have the best fans, but I really didn't want to risk coming back and not having such a good year or maybe even risking injury. I've had my share of injuries this year. I feel like you've got to get out while you can."


Lacy thinks he "made a pretty solid statement" in the title game, when he made a spin move into the end zone on a TD catch and on another run pushed 248-pound linebacker Danny Spond away with one hand.


Lacy was recruited in the same class as Trent Richardson, last year's No. 3 pick by Cleveland, but redshirted and then spent two seasons as a backup. He's not widely projected to follow Richardson and 2009 Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram into the first round. Lacy said he was projected as a second- or third-round pick in feedback from the NFL, but was impressive in the finale. Ordinarily, Saban only recommends projected first-round picks leave early.


"I'm fully supportive of what Eddie's doing," Saban said. "It's a little bit of a different situation than we've had in the past, but it's a little bit unique as well. Every one of these situations is unique to that particular individual and what his situation is. "


The 6-foot-6, 335-pound Fluker started 35 games for the Tide and was a second-team Associated Press All-American.


He was one of the Tide's top-rated signees in 2009 but came in overweight at about 395 pounds and was redshirted.


"I certainly feel like this year has been his best year as a player, and I feel that he's made a good decision about what he wants to do," said Saban, adding that Fluker has improved as much as any player on the team.


The mammoth Fluker, who wears a size-22 shoe, said in a statement that leaving early "is never an easy decision when you are playing at a place like Alabama."


"''These four years in Tuscaloosa have been the best four years of my life and I appreciate everyone who helped me along the way," he said.


Quarterback AJ McCarron, All-America linebacker C.J. Moseley and guard Anthony Steen have already said they're returning for their senior seasons. Saban didn't rule out other juniors possibly declaring for the draft before Tuesday's deadline.


The Tide does have promising players who have logged plenty of playing time behind Lacy and Milliner, especially. Two freshmen — tailback T.J. Yeldon (1,108 yards, 12 touchdowns) — and cornerback Geno Smith saw significant action.


"You've got people that are going to go to the NFL each year and you've got people behind them that are going to do the same things when their time comes," Milliner said.


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ABC’s “Zero Hour” Will Conclude Conspiracies After Each Season






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Paul Scheuring, the executive producer of ABC’s “Zero Hour,” says the conspiracy driving the new ABC drama will “100 percent” wrap up at the end of its first season.


Premeiring February 14, the show follows Anthony Edwards (“ER”) as the publisher of a magazine that investigates conspiracy theories. But after his wife (Jacinda Barrett) is abducted from her antique clock shop, Edwards’ character is pulled into one of the most compelling mysteries in human history. We don’t know exactly what that mystery is yet, but it involves clocks and Nazis.






Despite the massive scale of the tale, which stretches across the globe and back in time several centuries, season one’s storyline won’t be stretched across future seasons — a practice that Scheuring says leads to writers “flapping” their wings.


“One of the things I learned from ‘Prison Break’ and making a serialized show is that if you’re a single conceived show, like ‘Prison Break’ or ‘Lost,’” he said Thursday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “Sooner or later you start flapping your wings because a story needs to end.”


So instead of trying to “stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch” the narrative, Scheuring modeled the series like “24.”


“It’s like the ’24′ model where you reset every year,” he continued. “This entire Nazi conspiracy thing will be done by episode 13 this year.”


But just like Jack Bauer’s addiction to danger in “24,” the characters in “Zero Hour” will dive into another conspiracy if they’re lucky enough to return for a second season.


“We have a group of investigators, headed by Anthony, at the magazine which can then apply those skills to the next investigation,” Scheuring concluded.


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Flu season puts businesses and employees in a bind


WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half the 70 employees at a Ford dealership in Clarksville, Ind., have been out sick at some point in the past month. It didn't have to be that way, the boss says.


"If people had stayed home in the first place, a lot of times that spread wouldn't have happened," says Marty Book, a vice president at Carriage Ford. "But people really want to get out and do their jobs, and sometimes that's a detriment."


The flu season that has struck early and hard across the U.S. is putting businesses and employees alike in a bind. In this shaky economy, many Americans are reluctant to call in sick, something that can backfire for their employers.


Flu was widespread in 47 states last week, up from 41 the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The only states without widespread flu were California, Mississippi and Hawaii. And the main strain of the virus circulating tends to make people sicker than usual.


Blake Fleetwood, president of Cook Travel in New York, says his agency is operating with less than 40 percent of its full-time staff because of the flu and other ailments.


"The people here are working longer hours and it puts a lot of strain on everyone," Fleetwood says. "You don't know whether to ask people with the flu to come in or not." He says the flu is also taking its toll on business as customers cancel their travel plans: "People are getting the flu and they're reduced to a shriveling little mess and don't feel like going anywhere."


Many workers go to the office even when they're sick because they are worried about losing their jobs, says John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employer consulting firm. Other employees report for work out of financial necessity, since roughly 40 percent of U.S. workers don't get paid if they are out sick. Some simply have a strong work ethic and feel obligated to show up.


Flu season typically costs employers $10.4 billion for hospitalization and doctor's office visits, according to the CDC. That does not include the costs of lost productivity from absences.


At Carriage Ford, Book says the company plans to make flu shots mandatory for all employees.


Linda Doyle, CEO of the Northcrest Community retirement home in Ames, Iowa, says the company took that step this year for its 120 employees, providing the shots at no cost. It is also supplying face masks for all staff.


And no one is expected to come into work if sick, she says.


So far, the company hasn't seen an outbreak of flu cases.


"You keep your fingers crossed and hope it continues this way," Doyle says. "You see the news and it's frightening. We just want to make sure that we're doing everything possible to keep everyone healthy. Cleanliness is really the key to it. Washing your hands. Wash, wash, wash."


Among other steps employers can take to reduce the spread of the flu on the job: holding meetings via conference calls, staggering shifts so that fewer people are on the job at the same time, and avoiding handshaking.


Newspaper editor Rob Blackwell says he had taken only two sick days in the last two years before coming down with the flu and then pneumonia in the past two weeks. He missed several days the first week of January and has been working from home the past week.


"I kept trying to push myself to get back to work because, generally speaking, when I'm sick I just push through it," says Blackwell, the Washington bureau chief for the daily trade paper American Banker.


Connecticut is the only state that requires some businesses to pay employees when they are out sick. Cities such as San Francisco and Washington have similar laws.


Challenger and others say attitudes are changing, and many companies are rethinking their sick policies to avoid officewide outbreaks of the flu and other infectious diseases.


"I think companies are waking up to the fact right now that you might get a little bit of gain from a person coming into work sick, but especially when you have an epidemic, if 10 or 20 people then get sick, in fact you've lost productivity," Challenger says.


___


Associated Press writers Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Eileen A.J. Connelly in New York, Paul Wiseman in Washington, Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa, and Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.


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Kimmel says he expects to run 3rd in late night


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel says he expects to settle in as the third-rated talk show host in late-night television, even as early ratings suggest he's very competitive in his new time slot.


ABC's funny man is finishing his first week in a new 11:35 p.m. time slot, competing directly with Jay Leno on NBC and David Letterman on CBS.


Kimmel said on Friday that "Jimmy Kimmel Live" has scheduled Matt Damon as a guest on Jan. 24. Kimmel has a long history with Damon, frequently joking at the end of his show that he ran out of time and couldn't get Damon on the air as planned.


Kimmel's show finished third in viewership Thursday but first in the youthful demographic ABC seeks.


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U.S. to review Boeing 787 design, safety

Two new incidents involving the Boeing 787 Dreamliner have been reported in Japan -- a crack in the cockpit and an oil leak. Norah O'Donnell reports.









The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it will launch a high-priority and comprehensive review of Chicago-based Boeing's new 787's critical systems, following a rash of malfunctions this week, such as a battery fire and fuel leaks. However, federal transportation officials also supported Boeing, saying repeatedly that the plane is safe.

"We are confident about the safety of this aircraft," said Federal Aviation Administrator Michael Huerta, adding that a priority in the review will be the plane's electrical systems. He said he would not speculate on how long the review would take.


The review, an unusual move for the FAA that will not ground planes or halt production of new 787s, will examine the plane's design, manufacture and assembly, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.








"Through it, we will look for the root causes of recent events and do everything we can to make sure these events don't happen again," he said. "I believe this plane is safe and I would have absolutely no reservation of boarding one of these planes and taking a flight."


Boeing shares were down 2.5 percent in midday trading to $75.15.


The announcement comes amid yet more reports Friday of problems with the highly anticipated "Dreamliner" jet, including a cracked cockpit window and another oil leak on a Japanese carrier. They add to a rash of other reported problems this week, most seriously a battery fire on a parked 787 in Boston, an incident under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.


The plane model is in use in Chicago for temporary United Airlines flights between Chicago O'Hare and Houston. Chicago-based United has five other 787s in service domestically. "We continue to have complete confidence in the 787 and in the ability of Boeing, with the support of the FAA, to resolve these early operational issues," a United spokeswoman said. "We will support Boeing and the FAA throughout their review."


Next week, LOT Polish Airlines plans to begin operating the region's first regular flight on a 787 between O'Hare and Warsaw, Poland. That inaugural flight is still planned for Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. All told, Boeing has delivered 50 Dreamliners to customers around the world, many to Japanese carriers.


Aviation experts have said the planes are safe and that glitches are common on new models of planes, especially ones as revolutionary as the 787, which uses mostly composite materials instead of metals to create an aircraft that's more lighter, more fuel-efficient and more comfortable for passengers. However, other observers have said the concentration of problems in a short period and the media attention they garner is damaging the reputation of Boeing, which was already under scrutiny for delivering the Dreamliner to customers more than three years late. The plane's list price is about $207 million.


The latest problems came Friday, when Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways said a domestic flight from Tokyo landed safely at Matsuyama airport in western Japan after a crack developed on the cockpit windscreen, and the plane's return to Tokyo was cancelled.


"Cracks appear a few times every year in other planes. We don't see this as a sign of a fundamental problem" with Boeing aircraft, a spokesman for the airline said. The same airline later on Friday said oil was found leaking from an engine of a 787 Dreamliner after the plane landed at Miyazaki airport in southern Japan. An airline spokeswoman said it later returned to Tokyo after some delay. No one was injured in either incident.


Boeing said Friday the 787 logged 50,000 hours of flight, with more than 150 flights occurring daily, and that its performance has been on par with the Boeing 777, which it calls "the industry's best-ever introduction" of a new airplane. "More than a year ago, the 787 completed the most robust and rigorous certification process in the history of the FAA," Boeing said in a statement. "We remain fully confident in the airplane's design and production system."


Ray Conner, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said Friday that the recent problems were not caused by Boeing's outsourcing of production or by ramping up production too quickly.


"We are fully committed to resolving any issue that affects the reliability of our airlines," he said.


gkarp@tribune.com

Reuters contributed
 
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