The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the first airliner made mainly from carbon composite materials, suffered its first trouble Monday when one used by a Japanese airline failed to release its landing gear and the pilot had to manually deploy it.

All Nippon Airways Flight 651 from Tokyo's Haneda Airport with 249 passengers landed safely at the Okayama airport in western Japan on its second approach, when the pilot was able to manually deploy the landing gear.

ANA and Boeing are investigating the incident, which is being linked to a malfunction of the landing gear's hydraulic valve.
"We are aware of this matter and are on site in Japan with ANA offering whatever assistance they require," a Boeing spokesman in Europe told Reuters.

The incident came days after a Boeing 767 landed on its belly in Warsaw after its landing gear also failed to deploy. The 230 passengers aboard the plane were not hurt.

ANA, which has two Dreamliners, is the first airline to commercially use the Boeing model starting on Oct. 26. It is using the plane for domestic flights before flying it on long international routes.

Being made of lightweight material, the Dreamliner is capable of saving up to 20 percent on fuel consumption. Since the first Dreamliner was rolled out in 2007, Boeing has sold 797 units as of last month to 57 customers. It is the fastest-selling widebody airliner in history with an initial 677 orders.