FAA suspends Boeing 737 MAX operations

Photo: © Boeing

President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft types.

737 MAX airplanes currently en-route are allowed to continue to their destination.

Boeing said in a statement that the aircraft manufacturer remains confident in the safety of its aircraft, and that this grounding is only a temporary measure in order to ‘reassure the flying public’.

This grounding comes after two deadly accidents of the aircraft type in the past five months. Most recently, Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, which crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa Airport on Sunday, killing 157 people. While just in October 2018, Lion Air flight JT610 – operated by the Boeing 737 MAX 8 as well – crashed after takeoff from Jakarta.

During recent days, multiple countries, airlines and regulators, including the European Union’s aviation regulator – the EASA – had already decided to ground the aircraft type.

Following the FAA, Panama, which was the last country to allow Boeing 737 MAX operations along with the United States, has also confirmed it is grounding the aircraft. This means that all of the 371 worldwide delivered 737 MAX are now suspended from flying.

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