This I believe is the most serious threat to our crews, passengers, and aircraft. We've all been in the simulators where they give us a cargo fire and we conveniently have a place to land within 15 minutes and everyone survives. But we are kidding ourselves if we believe these situations are always going to work out this way.

UPS and Asiana Cargo lost 747s due to fires presumably to lithium batteries. UPS lost a DC-8 in PHL after the fire started on final and nearly consumed it before landing. It is only a matter of time until this happens on board a passenger aircraft.

Cargo cameras, thermal and otherwise (that can sense smoke thousands of times more sensitively than smoke detectors) are a good step IMO. It won't stop a fire, but it could give you immensely more data than is usually available these days. Some carriers have already done this, but it needs to get more comprehensive. That could tell you the difference between the "15 minute" scenario, one that may not be as critical, and one that may be more critical.

Back in the air soon
 

FAA order formally lifts Boeing 787 Dreamliner grounding

I truly hope the battery problems have been fixed.

One can only imagine what would happen if something even remotely similar would happen again.

The unofficial word is that Boeing never did find the reason the batteries caught on fire.

The 787 has been in Kona for the last two weeks going through, what appears to be, pretty thorough testing. Hope everything works out for the Dreamliner!

Perhaps complacency is more the correct term. I think a balance can be struck my hand flying approaches and departures using automation when needed. I think a pilot has to take personal responsibility And maintain their stick and rudder skills.