Washington, DC – President Donald Trump ordered today to suspend “immediately” the flights of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 aircraft after the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines flight in which 157 people died last Sunday.
“All those planes will be effectively immobilized immediately,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump explained that any aircraft of that type that is currently flying will reach its destination and there will be immobilized “until further notice.”
“The security of the American people, of all people, is our main concern,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that the decision was taken “as a result of the data collection and new evidence collected on the scene and analyzed today.”
“The immobilization will remain in effect until additional investigations are carried out, including the analysis of information from the data recorders of and the voice recorders of the flight cabin of the aircraft,” the agency added.
The United States was one of the few countries that had not yet decided to immobilize its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft after the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines flight in which 157 people died on Sunday, including eight Americans.
Hours before the announcement of Trump, Canada also decided to cease the activity of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and 9 product “of new information received this morning”.
The paralysis announced today by Trump will affect more than a hundred aircraft of this model of the company based in Chicago (Illinois), local media reported.
The deadly accident in Ethiopia has sparked controversy in the country over its maneuverability after at least two complaints from pilots were known, while pilot associations insist on training their members to handle them.
Several US media have echoed two anonymous reports reported last year by pilots of Boeing 737 MAX 8, which showed concern about a “sharp tilt” of the nose of the plane when the autopilot was connected, a problem that was solved by disabling it .
The accident in Ethiopia was the second in a few months of a 737 MAX, after in October 189 people died in another accident in Indonesia.
The investigations of that event indicated that among the various factors that caused the fall was an automatic system, called MCAS, which under certain circumstances inclines down the nose of the plane.
Boeing has posted significant losses on Wall Street in recent days, but today had only fallen by 0.29% half a day before the announcement of Trump. (EFEUSA)
