Three days after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash killed 157 people near Addis Ababa, India grounded all Boeing 737 Max aircraft used by airlines.
SpiceJet has around 12 such planes in its fleet, while Jet Airways has five.
India’s aviation watchdog, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), said that its order will come into effect by 4 pm on Wednesday, 13 March, and that no Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will be allowed to enter or transit the Indian airspace. DGCA clarified that the time between its order and implementation was meant to ensure that aircraft can be positioned at maintenance facilities and international flights can reach their destinations.
Meanwhile, the civil aviation secretary on Wednesday called an emergency meeting of all airlines at 4 pm in New Delhi to prepare a contingency plan as a number of flights have been cancelled following the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, a senior government official was quoted as saying by PTI.
‘Grounded to Ensure Safe Operations’
SpiceJet, in a statement, said: “Safety and security of our passengers, crew and operations are of utmost importance to us.”
On the night of Tuesday, 12 March, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had tweeted that the planes will be “grounded till appropriate modifications and safety measures are undertaken to ensure their safe operations.”
Countries Ban Boeing 737 MAX
India’s decision coincides with a growing list of countries that have banned the Boeing 737 MAX planes from their airspace following the second crash in just five months.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand's aviation watchdog joined counterparts worldwide on Wednesday in banning Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from its airspace in the wake of the deadly plane crash in Ethiopia, reported AFP.
New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it was imposing the temporary suspension after consultation with other regulators.
CHINA
China, a hugely important market for Boeing, had already ordered domestic airlines to suspend operations of the plane on Monday, 11 March. The country has 96 MAX 8 jets in service, belonging to carriers such as Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.
The AP report said the order was "taken in line with the management principle of zero tolerance for security risks." The authority said it will consult the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing before deciding when to lift the ban.
UK, GERMANY AND FRANCE
"The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder we have, as a precautionary measure, issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace," the UK Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement, reported Reuters.
Germany’s air safety authority DFS said on Tuesday that both Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 models would be barred from the country’s airspace until 12 June, said the report.
France’s DGAC civil aviation authority also said it was banning the aircraft from French airspace.
TURKEY
Turkish Airlines was also among those who suspended the aircraft. In a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, CEO Bilal Eksi said all Boeing 737 Max flights are suspended until the "uncertainty affecting safety is cleared."
NORWAY, SOUTH KOREA AND SOUTH AFRICA
Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle, South Korea's Eastar Jet and South Africa's Comair also said they would halt flights, but the full extent of the impact on international travel routes was unclear. Eastar Jet said that the airline hadn't found any problems, but is voluntarily grounding the planes in response to customer concerns, reported AP.
SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA, OMAN
Global air travel hub Singapore, as well as Malaysia and Oman were among the other countries to ban all 737 MAX planes from their airspace.
Singapore has temporarily banned MAX 8 jets — and other models in the MAX range — from entering and leaving the country. According to AP, the civil aviation authority said it was "closely monitoring the situation" and the ban will be "reviewed as relevant safety information becomes available."
Malaysia’s civil aviation authority said in a short statement on Tuesday that no Malaysian carriers operate the Max 8, but that foreign airlines are banned from flying the plane in Malaysia, and from transiting in the country, until further notice, reported AP.
UAE
The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority said its ban on the aircraft in its airspace was "a precautionary measure." The 737 MAX is the workhorse of the Dubai government-owned budget carrier FlyDubai. It operates 11 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 2 MAX 9 jetliners. Its total fleet is around 60 aircraft, including other models of the 737, reported AP.
AUSTRALIA
Australia has announced a temporary ban on flights by Boeing 737 Max aircraft, although none of its airlines currently operate them. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said on Tuesday that the ban will affect two foreign airlines — SilkAir and Fiji Airways — that use them for flights to Australia, according to AP.
ETHIOPIA
A spokesperson for Ethiopian Airlines says it grounded its remaining four MAX 8 jets as an "extra safety precaution" while it investigates Sunday's (10 March) deadly crash. The airline is awaiting the delivery of 25 more MAX 8 jets.
ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, MEXICO
Elsewhere Argentina's flag carrier also grounded five MAX 8 aircraft on Tuesday, as did airlines in countries including Brazil and Mexico.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam on Wednesday also banned Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from Vietnamese airspace, reported Reuters. Many other countries have also grounded the aircraft.
US Says ‘No Basis’ For Grounding 737 MAX
However, the US aviation regulator maintained that there was "no basis" for grounding Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft.
“Thus far, our review shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft,” Federal Aviation Administration chief Daniel Elwell said in a statement, according to an AFP report.
"Nor have other civil aviation authorities provided data to us that would warrant action."
"In the course of our urgent review of data on the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash, if any issues affecting the continued airworthiness of the aircraft are identified, the FAA will take immediate and appropriate action," the FAA added.
Boeing Plans to Change Plane’s Control Systems
Boeing is in the process of negotiating with the Federal Aviation Administration to make improvements to the 737 Max 8, although both the government and company maintain that the plane is safe to fly as it is, reported The New York Times.
Boeing issued a statement on Monday saying that since the Lion Air crash, the company had been developing a “flight control software enhancement for the 737 Max, designed to make an already safe aircraft even safer.”
It has also been upgrading its training guidelines and manuals so pilots can learn to fly the planes more safely. The software updates could be rolled out in the coming weeks, according to Boeing, according to the report.
The main issue that needs to be taken care of is limiting how much the flight control systems can automatically pull down the nose of the plane if sensors detect a stall, which was possibly the cause of the Lion Air crash in October 2018.
Boeing Says Safety is First Priority
The widening airspace closures puts pressure on Boeing, the world’s biggest plane-maker, to prove 737 MAX planes are safe as increasing numbers of fleets have been grounded.
The company issued a statement in the aftermath of the crash, saying that safety is Boeing’s number one priority.
"Safety is Boeing's number one priority and we have full confidence in the safety of 737 MAX. We understand that regulatory agencies and customers have made decisions that they believe are most appropriate for their home markets," the statement said, as per PTI.
Fastest Selling Family of Planes
Boeing has described the MAX series as its fastest-selling family of planes, with more than 5,000 orders placed to date from about 100 customers.
But not since the 1970s – when the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 suffered successive fatal incidents – has a new model been involved in two deadly accidents in such a short period.
The new Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 went down minutes into a flight to Nairobi on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board, from 35 countries. In October, a Lion Air jet of the same model crashed in Indonesia, killing 189 – but no evidence has emerged to link the two incidents.
The weekend crash sent Boeing shares nosediving as much as 12 percent on Monday, wiping billions of dollars off the market value of the company.
(With inputs from PTI, AFP, Reuters, AP and The New York Times.)
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