China and Indonesia decided not to let the Boeing Max 8 fly in the wake of Sunday’s crash in Ethiopia, but thus far the FAA says it is just “closely monitoring developments.”
Angry airline passengers flooded social media Monday, imploring the Federal Aviation Administration to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 jets in the United States and telling the aviation giant “blood is on your hands.”
Officials in China and Indonesia grounded Boeing’s Max 8 jets in the wake of Sunday’s crash in Ethiopia, which killed 157 people. In October, a crash of the same model plane in Indonesia killed 189 people.
Both planes went down shortly after takeoff, and exhibited erratic dives and climbs in altitude, according to early investigations.
“Evidently the lives of the people on US flights are not as important as those on Chinese flights,” Maycie S. Dagostino said on Twitter. “United States continues to fly like people aren’t dying. #FAA needs to do their —ing job.”
“Hold airlines accountable for trending mechanical issues!” and “Just ground them already,” others tweeted to the FAA.
Britt Lake, chief program officer for Global Giving in Washington, D. C., had a public exchange with American Airlines that didn’t bring much relief.
“I do not feel comfortable flying your #737MAX for an upcoming AA flight on Thursday,” Lake tweeted. “Given what we know about their safety, how can we rebook to another flight/plane? Several countries/airlines have already grounded their #737MAX planes. Is @AmericanAir doing the same?”
American responded from its corporate account. “Safety is our number one priority,” it said. “We have full confidence in the aircraft and our crew members, who are the best in the industry.
