Boeing confident fire-damaged Ethiopian 787 can be repaired 

Boeing Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney seemed sanguine in remarks Wednesday about repairing the fire-damaged Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner still at London Heathrow airport, expressing confidence about making the fixes needed.
“We’re in discussion with them (Ethiopian) right about how to handle that. We want to make sure they’re in agreement with our approach,” he said during wide-ranging comments in the second-quarter Boeing conference call with analysts Wednesday. “We feel comfortable we know how to address this issue and most other structural issues as they arise.”
With authorities all but concluding the cause of the fire was not a flaw in the 787’s design, but a faulty emergency locater transmitter in the aircraft’s aft, McNerney said the question now is approach and timing.
“We are in discussion with Ethiopian; we want them to be completely comfortable with our approach, and those discussions will take another few days and weeks,” he said. “And then we will be in a better position to give you an estimate.”
The July 12 fire aboard a parked Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner occurred in the upper area of the fuselage just forward of the vertical stabilizer. There's evidence of a wide swath of damage, with the aircraft’s ribs and stringers outlined in black. Experts have wondered if the damage may be too large to patch, and may require replacement of that hull section.
McNerney declined to specify exactly how the repair will be made, saying it’s still too early. He said in comparison, the January battery fire aboard a Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner at Boston’s Logan Airport caused “no significant structural damage to the hull.”