The grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 8 jets by Ethiopian Airlines and carriers in China and elsewhere following the crash of a flight of Ethiopian Airlines on Sunday that killed all 157 people onboard has raised serious questions about safety of the 737 Max 8 jets made by the US based plane maker.
The cause of the Sunday crash could soon be known because the cockpit voice recorder and the digital flight data recorder of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 has been recovered m the airline announced on Monday.
The crash happened six minutes after the take off of a Boeing 737 Max 8 place on its way to Nairobi from Addis Ababa. This was the second such disaster involving the new aircraft in the last four months. 189 people on board of a Lion Air plane died last October after it crashed into the sea off the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
There are over 300 Boeing 737-MAX planes being flown all across the world while there are orders for more than 5,000 of the jest throughout the globe since 2017.
Concerns that both the recent crashes involved crafts that had only been in service for a short time were expressed by aviation experts, Chinese regulators, and concerned passengers.
The latest disaster was “highly suspicious” and “rings alarm bells in the aviation industry, because that just doesn’t happen”, said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the US transportation department, in an interview to a television channel.
The pilot of the crashed Ethiopian Airline reported difficulties in flying the craft to air traffic controllers before the accident – same as those reported by the pilot in the Lion Air case. The Ethiopian Airlines said that the pilot has asked the air traffic control permission to turn back.
Soon after the accident, the airline announced that all of the 737 Max planes that it was using had been grounded until further orders. All of the 737 Max planes used by all the Chinese airlines were also ordered ot be temporarily grounded by Chinese authorities in “in view of the fact that the two air crashes were newly delivered Boeing 737-8 aircraft” and had “certain similarities”.
Since the craft was released, about 60 of the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes have been delivered to about a dozen Chinese airlines.
Announcement of grounding Boeing 737 Max 8 while an investigation into the crash took place was also made by Cayman Airways. The airline was “putting the safety of our passengers and crew first”, said the Cayman Airways president and chief executive, Fabian Whorms.
However, British Airlines, whose franchise African airline, Comair, has Max 8s in its fleet, said that there were no plans to ground the jets. Singapore Airlines said that the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, of which it had 8 in its regional carrier SilkAir and orders for 31 more had been placed, had not been grounded and that it was “continuing to monitor the situation closely”.
Some of the other airlines that had placed orders for Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft – including Virgin Australia and Air Niugini, announced no plans for changing the orders that had been placed.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
The cause of the Sunday crash could soon be known because the cockpit voice recorder and the digital flight data recorder of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 has been recovered m the airline announced on Monday.
The crash happened six minutes after the take off of a Boeing 737 Max 8 place on its way to Nairobi from Addis Ababa. This was the second such disaster involving the new aircraft in the last four months. 189 people on board of a Lion Air plane died last October after it crashed into the sea off the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.
There are over 300 Boeing 737-MAX planes being flown all across the world while there are orders for more than 5,000 of the jest throughout the globe since 2017.
Concerns that both the recent crashes involved crafts that had only been in service for a short time were expressed by aviation experts, Chinese regulators, and concerned passengers.
The latest disaster was “highly suspicious” and “rings alarm bells in the aviation industry, because that just doesn’t happen”, said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the US transportation department, in an interview to a television channel.
The pilot of the crashed Ethiopian Airline reported difficulties in flying the craft to air traffic controllers before the accident – same as those reported by the pilot in the Lion Air case. The Ethiopian Airlines said that the pilot has asked the air traffic control permission to turn back.
Soon after the accident, the airline announced that all of the 737 Max planes that it was using had been grounded until further orders. All of the 737 Max planes used by all the Chinese airlines were also ordered ot be temporarily grounded by Chinese authorities in “in view of the fact that the two air crashes were newly delivered Boeing 737-8 aircraft” and had “certain similarities”.
Since the craft was released, about 60 of the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes have been delivered to about a dozen Chinese airlines.
Announcement of grounding Boeing 737 Max 8 while an investigation into the crash took place was also made by Cayman Airways. The airline was “putting the safety of our passengers and crew first”, said the Cayman Airways president and chief executive, Fabian Whorms.
However, British Airlines, whose franchise African airline, Comair, has Max 8s in its fleet, said that there were no plans to ground the jets. Singapore Airlines said that the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, of which it had 8 in its regional carrier SilkAir and orders for 31 more had been placed, had not been grounded and that it was “continuing to monitor the situation closely”.
Some of the other airlines that had placed orders for Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft – including Virgin Australia and Air Niugini, announced no plans for changing the orders that had been placed.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
