An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 has made its first flight since suffering structural damage in a fire at London’s Heathrow Airport in July.

Boeing test pilots took ET-AOP on a test flight from Heathrow on December 21, flying racetrack patterns over the North Sea at 39,000 ft. The aircraft was due to land at Manston Airport in the afternoon and then return to Heathrow later in the day. It is not clear whether more flights will be required, but Boeing is hopeful of returning the aircraft to passenger operations in the coming weeks.

The fire, which erupted in one of the 787’s Honeywell-made emergency locator transmitters (ELT) while the aircraft was parked between flights on July 12, scorched the crown of the fuselage forward of the tail fin leading edge and caused major smoke damage to the interior as a whole.

Source: AviationWeek