A photograph from January 26, 2010, shows an Ethiopian Boeing 777 aircraft departing a hangar in Nairobi. AFP PHOTO
Ethiopian Airlines has suspended operations of its four Boeing 737 Max aircraft following a crash that killed 157 people on March 10, 2019. The decision aligns with global safety measures after two 737 Max incidents within months.
The airline stated in a Sunday release: "While the crash cause remains undetermined, we opted to ground the fleet as a precautionary measure during ongoing investigations."
China’s civil aviation authority has halted flights of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operated by domestic carriers. Our records show this affects 13 airlines and nearly 100 planes. CAAC statement: https://t.co/Sh1gJTSeag pic.twitter.com/NeQG1bOJJT — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 11, 2019
The grounding followed a crash involving Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which crashed shortly after departing Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport en route to Nairobi. All 149 passengers and eight crew members died.
FlightRadar24 data indicated the aircraft experienced unstable flight characteristics two minutes into the journey, maintaining 7,500 feet altitude at 600 knots before losing tracking. The plane had arrived from Johannesburg, South Africa, prior to the incident.
Accident Bulletin no. 5 issued March 10, 2019 at 07:08 AM local time pic.twitter.com/dKcCIWONlE — Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 11, 2019
This marks the second 737 Max disaster in less than five months. A Lion Air flight of the same model crashed off Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189 people. Both aircraft were newly delivered and crashed minutes after takeoff.
