MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2019) Major international air carriers that operate Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are divided over grounding the airliners after a brand new jet of the same model suffered a crash in Ethiopia, with some grounding flights and others remaining confident in the safety of their flights.
On Sunday, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane carrying 157 people, including eight crew members, crashed in a rural area southeast of Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, killing everyone on board. Earlier in the day, the Ethiopian Airlines said that a digital flight data recorder and cockpit recorder had been recovered at the site of the crash.
This latest catastrophe is the second fatal incident involving the narrow-body aircraft in less than five months. In late October 2018, another Boeing 737 MAX 8, operated by Indonesia's Lion Air, plunged into the Java Sea shortly after take-off, claiming the lives of 189 people. According to the preliminary investigation, the plane's sensors were showing incorrect speed and altitude readings.
MOST CARRIERS STAND BEHIND SAFETY OF THEIR FLEET
The second crash involving MAX 8 jet sparked major concerns of customers who flooded Twitter with inquiries on how to learn if their flights utilize the aircraft in question and how to get a refund in this case. However, most companies issued statements reaffirming their confidence in the safety of their Boeing fleet, while expressing condolences to those who lost their loved ones in the crash.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which has 34 Max 8 planes and over 200 more ordered, told Sputnik that it did not consider any changes to its operational policies or procedures.
"As Southwest operates a fleet of 34 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, we have been in contact with Boeing and will continue to stay close to the investigation as it progresses. We remain confident in the safety and airworthiness of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft. We don't have any changes planned to our operational policies or procedures," the company's spokesperson said in a statement.
American Airlines, which owns 24 MAX aircraft, told Sputnik that it would "closely monitor" the investigation into the crash in Ethiopia, adding that it remained confident in its fleet and crew members.
"We have full confidence in the aircraft and our crew members, who are the best and most experienced in the industry," the company's statement read.
Air Canada said in a statement that the MAX 8 aircraft "have performed excellently from a safety, reliability as well as from a safety perspective," adding that the company would continue operating this model in accordance with its schedule.
WestJet, the second-largest Canadian air carrier owning 13 MAX aircraft, also said in a statement that it remained confident in the safety of its fleet.
"We are monitoring the situation closely and will not speculate on the cause of the incident. WestJet remains confident in the safety of our Boeing 737 fleet including our 13 MAX-8 aircraft first introduced in 2017," the statement read.
The same remarks were made by a spokesperson for the United Airlines, which owns 14 MAX-9 jets, but no MAX-8 modification that crashed en route to Nairobi.
"We have made clear that the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is safe and that our pilots are properly trained to fly the MAX aircraft safely," the spokesperson said.
Norwegian air carrier said on Twitter that all of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were "operating as normal," noting that the company was close dialogue with Boeing and followed their instructions and recommendations.
UAE-based low-cost airline flydubai, which owns 14 737 MAX jets, said earlier in Monday that it was in touch with Boeing after the fatal crash in Ethiopia and remained confident in its fleet reliability. Russia's S7 Airlines has also said that it did not plan to ground MAX 8 flights.
MALAYSIA AIRLINES ASKS MORE INFO ON MAX 8 AHEAD OF DELIVERIES
Malaysia Airlines, which ordered some 25 MAX jets, said that it was too early to comments on the issue as "the cause of the incident has yet to be ascertained," noting, however, that it requested further technical details regarding the aircraft from Boeing.
"Safety is of the utmost importance for the airline and we are taking the incident very seriously. We have written to Boeing seeking for more technical details ahead of the delivery of our order, expected in 2020," the company said in a statement.
ETHIOPIA, CHINA, CAYMAN ISLANDS, INDONESIA GROUND MAX 8 FLIGTS
Ethiopian Airlines announced on Monday that it had decided to suspend the operation of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes as a precaution following the crash.
"Following the Tragic accident of ET 302/10 March B-737-8 MAX (ET-AVJ), Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday March 10, 2019 until further notice. Although we don't yet know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution," the airline said in a press release published on its official website.
Similar precautions have been taken by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which has also banned Boeing 737 MAX 8 flights for an unspecified period of time, pointing to similarities between Sunday's crash and the Boeing accident off Indonesia's coast last October. According to the Boeing database, Chinese air carriers own a total of 76 737 MAX aircraft.
Cayman Airways also announced the suspension of flights by the aircraft in question.
"While the cause of this sad loss is undetermined at this time, we stand by our commitment to putting the safety of our passengers and crew first by maintaining complete and undoubtable safe operations, and as such, we have taken the decision to suspend operations of both our new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, effective from Monday March 11, 2019, until more information is received," Cayman Airways President and CEO Fabian Whorms said in a statement.
Indonesia, whose Lion Air and Garuda air carriers own MAX 8s, has also joined the ranks of those grounding the aircraft for further inspections.
Following the deadly crash in October, the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee has indicated that during the Lion Air flight the airplane received incorrect data from one of its AOA (Angle of Attack) sensors that is responsible for showing how the airplane's nose is pointed. Boeing subsequently issued a safety bulletin for the operators of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, warning them about potentially erroneous data provided by the flight-control software.
