WASHINGTON, March 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US Federal Aviation Administration has told airlines it believes Boeing’s 737 Max 8 model to be airworthy, after two fatal crashes inside six months.
An Ethiopian Airlines plane en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed six minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.
The incident followed Lion Air 737 Max 8 crash in October that killed 189.
Some in the aviation community have called for the aircraft to be grounded pending a full investigation.
China, Indonesia, and Ethiopia on Monday ordered their airlines to ground the jet. Other airlines kept flying the 737 Max 8 after Boeing said it was safe.
On Monday, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a “continued airworthiness notification” saying the plane was safe to fly.
US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the FAA would “take immediate and appropriate action” if a defect was found in the plane.
FAA chief Dan Elwell said the notification “informs the international community where we are and (gives) … one answer to the whole community”.
The Ethiopian aircraft came down near the town of Bishoftu, 60km south-east of the capital. The cause of the disaster is not clear, but the pilot had reported difficulties and asked to return to Addis Ababa.
Investigators have found the cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder but it will be a while before the findings are made public.
Rolled out in 2017, the Max 8 is the latest iteration of the 737 line. By the end of January, Boeing had delivered 350 of the model of 5,011 orders.
The plane that crashed was among six of 30 that Ethiopian Airlines had ordered as part of its expansion. It underwent a “rigorous first check maintenance” on 4 February, the airline said.
Following the Lion Air crash, investigators said the pilots had appeared to struggle with an automated system designed to keep the plane from stalling, a new feature of the jet.
The anti-stall system repeatedly forced the plane’s nose down, despite efforts by pilots to correct this, preliminary findings suggested. The Lion Air plane was also new and the accident happened soon after take-off.
The investigation will be led by Ethiopian authorities in co-ordination with teams of experts from Boeing and the US National Transportation Safety Board. — NNN-AGENCIES