The tragic crash shortly after takeoff in Addis Ababa, killed 157 people from 35 different nations. This made it the second Boeing 737 Max to crash in the initial phase of the flight in the past few months, the first being a lion air flight which crashed back in October last year and killed 189 people.
People have began noticing striking similarities between the October crash and the most recent Indonesian one. Experts have even begun citing satellite data and evidence from the crash scene, showing shocking similarities.
**Not the actual plane**
After the information of the crash was made public countries started grounded all their Boeing 737 Max Planes, it began when less than 24 hours after the crash China decided to ban all domestic airlines from operating the Boeing 737 Max. This meant that nearly 100 of the countries domestic aircraft could not fly.
They were then shortly followed by Cayman Airlines, who were the first airline to ground its 737 max fleet voluntarily. While their fleet of 737 Max’s only stretches to 5, it is nice to see that they are erring on the side of caution and want to reduce the risk for their customers. Cayman Airlines CEO made this statement “While the cause of this sad loss is undetermined at this time, we stand by our commitment to putting the safety of our passengers and crew first by maintaining complete and undoubtable safe operations, and as such, we have taken the decision to suspend operations of both our new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, effective from Monday March 11, 2019, until more information is received.”
Indonesia was the second country to ground its domestic 737 Max’s temporarily. There are 11 737 Max planes in Indonesia of which 10 belong to Lion Air, the airline who’s 737 max was the first to crash. Authorities have said that the aircraft is grounded until they can get a better sense of what’s going on. Authorities have said that the plane is grounded until they can get a better sense of what’s going on.
This list of countries that have followed on is around 51, these include countries such as United States, Australia and United Kingdom. UK Officials have said that this grounded will last until May at the least. In addition to all the current Max aircraft that are in service currently, there is in the region of 5,000 more Max jets on order from airlines. Garuda Indonesia said there was a possibility it would cancel its 20-strong order for Max jets, depending on what the FAA does.
It is still unclear what kind of fault could be causing these crashes,. The possible similarities between the accidents is clear, with a main focus on the aircraft’s anti-stall system. This similarities have shocked the aviation industry and raised questions over Boeing’s, and the FAA’s, insistence that the Max 737 was safe to fly.