Shanghai Airlines' three Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes are parked at the
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport on March 11, 2019. A number of
countries grounded the 737 Max 8 jets in response to an Ethiopian
Airlines crash that killed all 157 people on board. PHOTO | AFP
Britain joined a growing wave of suspensions of Boeing 737
MAX aircraft on Tuesday as US President Donald Trump waded into the
debate over modern airplane design following a crash in Ethiopia that
killed 157 people.
Suspension by Britain, one of
the industry’s most established regulators, was the worst setback yet
for Boeing in the wake of Sunday’s crash and put pressure on regulators
in the rest of Europe and the United States to follow suit.
“Pilots
are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT,” Trump
tweeted, lamenting that product developers always sought to go an
unnecessary step further when “old and simpler” was superior.
“I
don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I
want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly
take control of a plane!”
The cause of Sunday’s crash, which followed another disaster with a 737 Max five months ago in Indonesia, remains unknown.
Trump did not refer directly to Boeing or recent accidents.
October’s Lion Air crash is also unresolved but attention has
focused so far on the role of a software system designed to push the
plane down as well as airline training and maintenance. Boeing says it
plans to update the software in coming weeks.
There is no evidence yet whether the two crashes are linked.
At
the same time as London’s announcement, Norwegian Air said it too would
temporarily ground its MAX 8 passenger jets on the advice of European
regulators.
Earlier, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and
Oman had also temporarily suspended the aircraft, following China,
Indonesia and others the day before.
Sunday’s disaster has wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world’s biggest planemaker.
But
experts say it is too early to speculate on the reason for the crash or
whether the two are linked. Most crashes are caused by a unique chain
of human and technical factors.
Multiple nationalities
Given
problems of identification at the charred disaster site, Ethiopian
Airlines said it would take at least five days to start handing remains
to families.
The victims came from more than 30 different nations, and included nearly two dozen U.N. staff.
“We
are Muslim and have to bury our deceased immediately,” Noordin Mohamed,
a 27-year-old Kenyan businessman whose brother and mother died, told
Reuters.
“Losing a brother and mother in the same day
and not having their bodies to bury is very painful,” he said in the
Kenyan capital Nairobi where the plane had been due.
Flight
ET 302 came down in a field soon after takeoff from Addis Ababa on
Sunday, creating a fireball in a crater. It may take weeks or months to
identify all the victims, who include a prize-winning author, a soccer
official and a team of humanitarian workers.
The United
States has said it remained safe to fly the planes, and Boeing has said
there is no need to issue new guidance to operators based on the
information it has so far.
Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its four other 737 MAX 8 jets as a precaution.
Anxiety
was also evident among some travellers, who rushed to find out from
social media and travel agents whether they were booked to fly on 737
MAX planes - the same model in the Lion Air crash off Indonesia that
killed 189 people in October.
If the black box
recordings found at the Ethiopian crash site are undamaged, the cause of
the crash could be identified quickly, although it typically takes a
year for a full probe.
Nearly 40 percent of the
in-service fleet of 371 Boeing 737 MAX jets globally is grounded,
according to industry publication Flightglobal. That includes 97 jets in
biggest market China.
Boeing shares fell another 5.6 percent on Tuesday after having lost 5 percent on Monday.
The
US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a “continued
airworthiness notification” for the 737 MAX on Monday to assure
operators, and detailed a series of design changes mandated by Boeing
after the Indonesia crash.
Better software
Boeing
said it had been working with the FAA following the Lion Air crash to
enhance flight control software that would be deployed across the 737
MAX fleet in the coming weeks.
The MAX 8 has new software that automatically pushes the plane’s nose down if a stall is detected.
The
new variant of the 737, the world’s best-selling modern passenger
aircraft, could become the workhorse for airlines around the globe for
decades and another 4,661 are on order.
In Latin
America, Gol in Brazil temporarily suspended MAX 8 flights, as did
Argentina’s state airline Aerolineas Argentinas and Mexico’s Aeromexico.
In
Asia, South Korean budget carrier Eastar Jet said it would temporarily
ground its two 737 MAX 8s from Wednesday, while India ordered additional
checks.
Still, major airlines from North America to
the Middle East kept flying the 737 MAX. Southwest Airlines Co, which
operates the largest fleet of 737 MAX 8s, said it remained confident in
the safety of all its Boeing planes.
Former FAA
accident investigator Mike Daniel said the decision by regulators to
ground the planes was premature. “To me it’s almost surreal how quickly
some of the regulators are just grounding the aircraft without any
factual information yet as a result of the investigation,” he told
Reuters.
In Nairobi, the UN Environment Program set up a small memorial for Victor Tsang, a staff member who lost his life.
“Travel
well my friend, see you on the other side,” said one entry in a
condolence book beside a framed photograph, bouquet of flowers and
candle. By mid-afternoon, 23 pages of the condolence book had been
filled with over 250 names.
No comments :
Post a Comment