More countries and airlines across the world are joining the move to ground the Boeing 737 Max 8 model from its fleet following the deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash that claimed 157 lives on Sunday.
This crash was the second involving the model in a period of five months, the first being in October last year when Indonesian Lion Air jet crashed killing 189 passengers.
Following the crash on Sunday, China ordered all domestic airlines to suspend operation of the Boeing 737 Max 8 on Monday, citing the two crashes. Indonesia, Malaysia followed suit and immediately grounded the model.
This was followed by Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority banning the model on Tuesday with Singapore, Australia, Turkey, France, Germany and Ireland also releasing statements confirming that they had taken the Boeing 737 Max 8 models off its fleets.
As of Wednesday, India, Canada, Fiji Airways were the latest countries to either suspend or completely halt the operations of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 models as pressure mounts on the US manufacturer to conduct investigations into the planes.
There are approximately 350 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts in operation worldwide, being flown by 54 operators, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Boeing has however defended the model and said it has “full confidence in the safety of the Max’ and as countries sweep in to ground the plane, the US maintains that it will not ground the Boeing 737 MAX planes.
