Three airlines ground Boeing 737 Max 8 after crash

Ethiopian Airlines, along with China and the Cayman Islands have grounded all their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets following a plane crash that killed 157 people on Sunday. Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 was flying from Addis Ababa to Nairobi when it crashed just six minutes after take-off. The plane went down in a field near Tulu Fara, a village just 60km outside of the capital city.

This is the second crash with the new aircraft in the last four months. A Lion Air plane B-737-8 also crashed into the sea in October last year just off the coast of Jakarta. All 189 passengers onboard were killed. Ethiopian Airlines announced in statement on Twitter that they decided to ground their whole B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday, March 10, until further notice.

‘Although we don’t yet know the cause of the accident, we have to decide to ground the particular fleet as an extra safety precaution,’ the statement read.

The cause of the crash is still unknown but with China’s aviation authorities move to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets and the Cayman Airlines also suspending operations of their two Boeing 737 Max 8 planes, it makes sense to halt flights until investigations are concluded.

There were no South Africans aboard the plane that crashed. The aircraft left Johannesburg on Sunday morning, flew back to Addis and was en route to Nairobi.

The carrier said the new-model Boeing had undergone ‘a rigorous first check maintenance’ on February 4 this year.

‘It is too early to speculate the cause of the accident and further investigation will be carried out to find out the cause of the accident in collaboration with all stakeholders including the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and other international entities to maintain the international standard and information will be provided once the cause is identified,’ airline officials said.