Europe Suspends All Boeing 737 MAX Operations After Ethiopian Airlines Crash
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The European Union’s aviation safety agency, EASA, suspended all flights with Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 and 9 airplanes on Tuesday. The bloc made the announcement following Sunday’s deadly plane crash in Ethiopia that killed 157 people. “EASA has decided to suspend all flight operations of the two affected models,” the agency said in a statement. In a little over four months, 346 people have died in two crashes involving the brand-new Boeing 737 MAX 8 model. Investigators have yet to establish the cause of a second crash in Ethiopia, but say there are similarities in the circumstances of the crash and the previous one in Indonesia. EASA has also yet to determine the cause of the crash. “EASA is continuously analysing the data as it becomes available. The accident investigation is currently ongoing, and it is too early to draw any conclusions as to the cause of the accident,” the EASA statement said.
On Monday, the United States Federal Aviation Administration gave Boeing a deadline of April to complete safety changes to the MAX 8 model. Neither Boeing nor the FAA have revealed what exactly will be changed. Boeing announced it was making changes to the MAX 8 “that would make an already safe aircraft even safer.”