In the aftermath of today’s loss of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew I’m hearing from many frequent flyers wondering whether the aircraft will be grounded, and thinking about whether or not they’re willing to fly on the jet.
Today’s incident follows the crash of Lion Air flight 610 back on October 29th, an incident which highlighted issues with the aircraft pointing noise down as a result of misinterpreting sensor data, and also incorrect airspeed readings.
With possible similarities between the incidents, it’s natural to wonder whether we’ll learn more that leads to a common problem. However I’ve been cautious about even offer such speculation. Lion Air has had safety and maintenance questions surrounding it in the past. And much of the initial information we get after a crash turns out to be incomplete or wrong. And in this case, unlike the Lion Air incident, there were no unaddressed mechanical issues prior to the crash.
At this point we just don’t know what caused the loss of the Ethiopian plane, its crew and its passengers let alone whether the issues involved were the same as those in October’s Lion Air crash. Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operate safely day in and day out. And we’ve seen ultimately safe aircraft, like the Airbus A320, have a series of incidents only to turn out to be a reliable plane.
Nonetheless according to Bloomberg China reportedly is grounding the plane. Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Shandong Airlines, and XiamenAir all operate Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
China asked domestic airlines to temporarily ground Boeing Co. 737 Max jets after a model operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed on Sunday, Caijing reported, citing an unidentified industry participant.
In the midst of trade disputes with the United States it’s unclear whether the move is being made out of an abundance of caution, as a negotiating tactic, or both.
Closer to home Aeromexico, Air Canada, American, Southwest, United, and WestJet all operate Boeing 737 MAXs.
Frankly, I would like to see all airlines ground this plane until there are answers. Sitting here in The hotel room thinking I do not want to board a 737 max until there are answers. I don’t know how many are in service and now with this post inknow which airlines I need to be aware of
It is shane you tie this to a political suspect in the first minute. Will you make such comment if it’s a western country made the ground decision?
Of course they should be grounded. This isn’t an issue about Lion Air’s prior record, so much as taking note of the very angry response from American pilots re the change without notice introduced by Boeing . Quite rightly, they were less than thrilled. But par for the course, Boeing tried to do a quiet fix-up.
They must be grounded across the globe. Two take-off phase accidents on a new model, under circumstances said to be similar….when that happened with the DC10(. Chicago and Turkish), for a relatively minor but catastrophic design flaw, it was the end.
Tying this, or at least speculating that this is a political decision is fair. There are lots of these airplanes flying every day, all of which do so without problems. Immediately putting blame on the plane itself with what information we have – Is ridiculously premature.
The 737 is an aircraft that is well past it’s sell-by date. The Airbus A321 is a vastly superior aircraft.
747 v A380? Again, the 747 is long in the tooth and shows it. The A380 is a superior ride.
787 V A350? Hmmm, we’ll see. Kinda a draw right now with advantage to whoever orders the A350 with outside air scoops, i.e. no bleed air for the cabin.
Boeing’s big winner is still the 777 in its extended variations. A rock solid aircraft.