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WASHINGTON, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The ban on the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft became worldwide after US President Donald Trump joined
Canada and other countries in grounding the aircraft amid mounting global
fears for the jets’ airworthiness.
US authorities said new evidence showed similarities between Sunday’s
deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 and a fatal accident
in Indonesia in October.
The Federal Aviation Administration said findings from the crash site near
Addis Ababa and “newly refined satellite data” warranted “further
investigation of the possibility of a shared cause for the two incidents.”
An FAA emergency order grounded 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 aircraft until further notice.
Trump told reporters at the White House the “safety of the American people
and all peoples is our paramount concern.”
Mexico late Wednesday suspended MAX 8 and 9 operations, after Canada and Chile also joined the long list of countries to ban the plane from flying in their airspaces. Many airlines have voluntarily taken it out of service.
Ethiopia said it would send the black boxes from Flight ET 302 to France
for analysis, which could provide crucial information about what happened.
“Hopefully they will come up with an answer but until they do the planes
are grounded,” Trump said.
FAA acting chief Daniel Elwell said the agency has been “working
tirelessly” to find the cause of the accident but faced delays because the
black box flight data recorders had been damaged.
The new information shows “the track of that airplane was close enough to
the track of the Lion Air flight… to warrant the grounding of the airplanes
so we could get more information from the black boxes and determine if
there’s a link between the two, and if there is, find a fix to that link,”
Elwell said on CNBC.
Boeing chief Dennis Muilenburg said he supported the US decision “out of an abundance of caution” but continued to have “full confidence” in the safety of the plane.
The company continues its efforts “to understand the cause of the
accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again,” Muilenburg said in a statement.
Questions about the Lion Air crash have honed in on an automated stall
prevention system, the MCAS, designed to automatically point the nose of the plane downward if it is in danger of stalling.
According to the flight data recorder, the pilots of Lion Air Flight 610
struggled to control the aircraft as the MCAS repeatedly pushed the plane’s
nose down following takeoff.
The Ethiopian Airlines pilots reported similar difficulties before their
aircraft plunged into the ground as they tried to return to the airport.
In Ethiopia, distraught families wept and lit candles as they visited the
deep black crater where the plane smashed into a field, killing 157
passengers and crew.
The Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 was less than four months old when it
went down six minutes into a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on Sunday, disintegrating on impact.
Families of the victims from Kenya, China, the United States and Canada,
as well as diplomatic staff from embassies, were visiting the crash site.
A dozen airlines have grounded the plane, while Nigeria, Lebanon, Egypt,
Serbia, Vietnam, New Zealand and Hong Kong on Wednesday also joined the list of countries to ban it from their airspace.
The European Union and major hubs such as the United Arab Emirates and
Australia had already done so.
American Airlines said it had 24 aircraft affected by the US ban, while
Southwest Airlines said it was still confirming the move.
The MAX series is Boeing’s fastest-selling model.
There are 74 of the planes registered in the United States, and 387 in use
worldwide with 59 carriers, according to the FAA.
Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle has said it would demand financial
compensation from Boeing as the implications of the mass grounding for the airline industry remained unclear. — NNN-AGENCIES
