President Trump grounds all Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 planes
President Trump said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will announce later Wednesday the grounding of two Boeing 737 Max jets, one model of which was involved in the fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people.
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, Trump said both the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 737 Max 9 models will be “grounded upon landing” at their destinations. He said that both pilots and airlines have been notified.
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“Any plane currently in the air will go to its destination and thereafter be grounded until further notice,” Trump told reporters. “The safety of the American people, and all people, is our paramount concern.”
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According to Fox News saying The news comes after Canada’s transport minister earlier Wednesday announced the country would be barring the Max 8 jet from its airspace, saying satellite tracking data shows possible but unproven similarities between the Ethiopian Airliner crash and a previous crash involving the model five months ago.
The president said that the U.S. worked in conjunction with Canada to make the decision to ground the planes. He added that his administration is also working closely with Boeing and other countries on the matter.
“Boeing is an incredible company,” Trump said. “They are working very, very hard right now, and hopefully they’ll very quickly come up with the answer.”
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Boeing in a statement said the company “continues to have full confidence of the safety of the 737 MAX.”
However, Boeing added that “out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety,” they are supporting “the temporary suspension of operations of the entire global fleet of 371 737 MAX aircraft.”
“We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution. Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes; and it always will be,” the statement continued. “We are doing everything we can to understand the cause of the accidents in partnership with the investigators, deploy safety enhancements and help ensure this does not happen again.”
Airlines in other countries around the world, including Ethiopia, China, Indonesia and elsewhere, grounded the jetliner on Monday.
