Chicago: Boeing has grounded its entire global fleet of 737 MAX 8s and 9s following Sunday’s crash in Ethiopia, Sky News reported. In a statement, the company said “out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety” it had decided to temporarily suspend its entire fleet of 371 MAX aircraft.
Boeing said it had taken the decision after consulting the US Federal Aviation Administration and the National Safety Board. The statement said: “We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution. Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes and it always will be.
There is no greater priority for our company and our industry. We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again.”
It follows Donald Trump announcing on Wednesday that the US would be barring the aircraft from its airspace. Mr Trump said: “We are going to be issuing an emergency order of prohibition to ground all flights of the 737 MAX 8 and the 737 MAX 9 and planes associated with that line.”