One of the airline’s new Boeing 787 Dreamliners suffered hail damage Monday after takeoff from Beijing. The Dallas-bound plane with 209 passengers returned to Beijing, where it was being checked out by a maintenance crew, said airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely.
The airline put the planes into service in May in the U.S., then between Dallas and Beijing and Buenos Aires in early June.
The plane’s fuselage and wings are made largely from carbon-fiber composite material instead of aluminum to reduce weight, making the plane more fuel-efficient.