South Africa's Comair Ltd announced on Monday that it would temporarily ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft after a deadly crash in Ethiopia involving a jet of the same model.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2019) South Africa's Comair Ltd announced on Monday that it would temporarily ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft after a deadly crash in Ethiopia involving a jet of the same model.
The crash involving Ethiopian Airlines' Flight ET 302/10 occurred in the morning of March 10, minutes after the Nairobi-bound plane took off from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. All 157 people from over 30 countries who were on board the Boeing were killed. The causes of the accident are yet unknown. According to the airline, the plane was well-maintained.
"Comair has decided to remove its 737 MAX 8 from its flight schedule, although neither regulatory authorities nor the manufacturer has required it to do so ... While Comair has done extensive preparatory work prior to the introduction of the first 737 MAX 8 into its fleet and remains confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft, it has decided temporarily not to schedule the aircraft while it consults with other operators, Boeing and technical experts," the company's press release read.
Following the deadly crash, Ethiopian Airlines announced that it had decided to suspend the operation of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplanes as a precaution, with Cayman Airways, Chinese and Indonesian aviation authorities following suit. India announced a safety review, while Vietnam said that it would not grant licenses for Boeing 737 MAX aircraft until the investigation into the ET 302 crash is completed.
The latest catastrophe in Ethiopia 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.
