United pulls pre-flight video touting Boeing 787 Dreamliner

NEW YORK -- United Airlines passengers may have been puzzled last week to watch a pre-flight video touting the company’s new fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners even as doubts emerged about their safety.

“This is the future of aviation,” Jeff Smisek, United’s chairman, president and chief executive, declares in the video, with a shiny new Dreamliner as his backdrop.

“We’re very proud to have a new aircraft joining the fleet,” a flight attendant says in the video.

Now that the Federal Aviation Administration and other airline regulators have grounded the aircraft because of concerns with the Dreamliners’ lithium-ion batteries, United has stopped showing the video -- at least for now.

“I confirm that we are not showing the videos onboard at the moment,” United spokeswoman Mary Ryan said in an e-mail. She did not immediately respond to follow-up questions.

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