The US finally decides to ground all Boeing 737 MAX 8

A Boeing 737 MAX 8 from TUI | Pedro Aragão [CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

The US was one of the last countries to decide to ground the entire fleet of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8.

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​After the deadly crash from Sunday 10th in Ethiopia, where 157 people died, various aviation authorities from different countries decided to temporarily ban the 737 MAX 8 from their airspace, due to the similarities between this crash and Lion Air’s crash, from October 2018.

This culminated on Tuesday the 12th, when the European Union decided to ban all flights of the 737 MAX 8 coming in or outside the Union’s airspace, increasing the pressure on the airplane manufacturer and US authorities. Even then, US authorities and the manufacturer assured the model was safe to fly, remaining the only large country still allowing the 737 MAX 8 to operate.

The pressure on both the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Boeing continued to increase as passengers were worried about which plane was used for their flight, going as far as requesting a transfer or cancellation of their flight if the model used was a 737 MAX 8.

Finally, a day after most of the world had decided to ground all 737 MAX 8, the FAA grounded all 737 MAX 8 in the country, a move supported by the manufacturer. In total, 371 737 MAX have been temporarily grounded worldwide. It is unknown until when these 371 airplanes will remain on the ground.

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