TUI Fly Netherlands, the chartered airline company, has decided to ground their three 737 MAX 8 Boeing aircraft. This is following the crash of the same aircraft model last Sunday, where all 157 passengers died, reports NOS. This was the second fatal crash in the last 5 months by the same type of aircraft, and belonged to Ethiopian Airlines.
There are numerous companies that use this type of aircraft. In 2018 alone, the Boeing visited Schiphol at least 508 times. However, other airlines, like TUI are also grounding them for fear of another crash. They are Ethiopian Airlines, Jet Airways (India), Cayman Airways (Cayman Islands), Gol Airlines (Brazil), Aeromexico, Norwegian Air and Eastar Jet (South Korea).
Countries are also taking strict action against this: Australia, UK, Malaysia and Singapore no longer allow these aircrafts to land or take off; China and Indonesia have suspended these flights; and Vietnam has stopped issuing permits for new aircrafts of this type to be built.
What do we know until now?
According to latest reports, it is known that the pilots were having “flight control problems”, which means that the plane was not responding to their inputs. However, they are working closely with the authorities to come up with software developments to improve the system, and this should be available to the entire fleet in a few weeks.
Pilots of Ethiopian Airlines told air traffic control they were having “flight control problems,” reports @questCNN.
"This will be extremely worrying because that is exactly what was happening with Lion Air." https://t.co/ANlKn7bGwV pic.twitter.com/pkqIojrm0W
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) March 12, 2019
How did Boeing respond to the crash?
In an official statement, Boeing has said that they have complete confidence in their MAX aircraft, and are currently investigating what caused the crashes. They said, “safety is Boeing’s number one priority and we have full confidence in the safety of the MAX. We understand that regulatory agencies and customers have made decisions that they believe are most appropriate for their home markets.”
They are not offering any guidance to the operators at the moment as they do not have enough information, and as the US Federal Aviation Administration” is not mandating any further action at this time”.
Update: The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands has decided to shut the country’s airspace to all Boeing 737 MAX aircrafts, reports RTLNieuws.
Feat Image by nickyhardinguk from Pixabay