Ethiopian Airlines has suspended flights via its Boeing 737 Max 8 planes. This is in response to the fatal plane crash that left 157 people dead.
The announcement which was made on Monday morning, March 11 stated clearly that the airline will no longer operate with all its B-737 Max 8 planes until further notice.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Airline, Tewolde GebreMariam, the airline operates six such aircraft. The CEO also revealed that the carrier received the brand new plane last year in November and had not given any sign of problems on its earlier flight from Johannesburg that morning.
According to reports, the ET 302 flight was en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi when it crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 149 passengers and 8 crew members on board. Those who died in the crash included citizens from about 35 nations and comprised of academics, United Nations employees, and business executives along with a senior Kenyan football official.
A statement from the Airline reads, “Although we don’t yet know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as an extra safety precaution.”
In a related development, Arab News reported that China had on Monday ordered its airlines to suspend operations of their 737 MAX 8 jets by 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) following the crash in Ethiopia, the second of a Boeing 737 MAX jet since one operated by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed in October.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said the order was “taken in line with the management principle of zero tolerance for security risks.”
It was not clear what caused the Ethiopian Airlines plane to go down in clear weather. But the accident was strikingly similar to last year’s crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Both crashes involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and both happened minutes after the jets became airborne.
The Ethiopian pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return to the airport, the airline’s CEO told reporters.
Worried families gathered at the flight’s destination, the airport in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya.
Agnes Muilu said he came to pick up his brother. “I just pray that he is safe or he was not on it,” he said.
Relatives were frustrated by the lack of information about loved ones.
“Why are they taking us round and round. It is all over the news that the plane crashed,” said Edwin Ong’undi, who was waiting for his sister. “All we are asking for is information to know about their fate.”
Interrogations have continued to trail the Sunday airline debacle with aviation experts saying the crash makes up “the most significant safety crisis to Boeing and its global operators” in years.
