Investigators and Boeing have provided no guidance on when the 787 might be cleared to re-enter service, and some carriers have contingency plans for an extended grounding of the plane.
For many of the thousands of employees at Boeing and United who saw their futures tied to this plane, the grounding order was more than a little unnerving.
The plane's grounding on Jan. 16, an enormous black eye for Boeing, marked the first time since 1979 that FAA had ordered every plane of a particular type to stay out of the air for safety reasons.