Nearly half of the world’s Boeing 737 Max 8 airliners are grounded as Australia and Great Britain joined the list of nations that have suspended flying them.
March 12 (UPI) — Nearly half of the world’s Boeing 737 Max 8 airliners have been grounded as Britain and Australia joined the list of nations that have suspended flying the model after the deadly crash in Ethiopia.
Carriers have grounded about 40 percent of the global fleet over concerns for what led to the crash Sunday that killed 157 people. It was the second crash involving the Max 8 in less than six months. An Indonesian Lion Air flight in October killed 189. In both cases, the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
„This is completely different to what happened to Lion Air, and that’s going to be part of the investigation — determining what the differences were, if there were any similarities between the two situations, and then finding and correcting the cause,“ aviation consultant Keith Mackey told Al Jazeera .
Several nations have suspended using the 737 Max 8 — Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, South Africa, Singapore and Australia. Argentine pilots have refused to fly the aircraft.
