The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an Airworthiness Directive, grounding the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft type.
This directive is valid from 1900 UTC and will affect every 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft that passes through European airspace, including arrivals, departures and overflights.
With this decision, the EASA is following a list of countries and airlines that have independently grounded the Boeing 737 MAX, after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 on Sunday, which was operated by this aircraft type. It was already the second deadly accident of the 737 MAX, raising serious questions over its safety.
In October 2018, Lion Air flight JT610 crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta Airport; the flight was operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8. It was later found that a faulty system to prevent the aircraft from stalling likely played a key role in the accident.
Investigators in Ethiopia, with assistance from the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), are now trying to find the reason for the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash, all current groundings are a temporary measure to ensure the safety of passengers, until more informatikon becomes available.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
