Comair grounds Boeing 737 MAX 8 after Ethiopia crash

Though experts argued that there was no fundamental reason to do so, Comair has decided to remove its 737 MAX 8 from its flight schedule, after an Ethiopian aircraft of the same model crashed and killed all 157 people on board minutes after take off.

This was the second disaster involving this particular model in the past six months and several airlines in countries including China, Indonesia and Ethiopia grounded their own fleets during ongoing investigations.

In a statement released late on Monday, Wrenelle Stander, executive director of Comair’s airline division, said: “Comair has decided to remove its 737 MAX 8 from its flight schedule, although neither regulatory authorities nor the manufacturer has required it to do so.

“While Comair has done extensive preparatory work prior to the introduction of the first 737 MAX 8 into its fleet and remains confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft, it has decided temporarily not to schedule the aircraft while it consults with other operators, Boeing and technical experts.

“The safety and confidence of our customers and crew is always our priority.”

The airline had initially said it would not ground the plane, as it believed it to be safe.

Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 crash.

Aviation expert Guy Leitch had commented on this, saying there would be nothing fundamentally wrong with deciding to use their aircraft, because they trusted that it would be safe for consumers.

“At the moment, we have not received firm findings so everyone is working in the dark,” said Leitch.

He added that aircraft were relatively safe and the company understood its aircraft and assumed that proper training would help prevent issues of this nature.

A second aviation expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said this was an usual situation where airlines, regulators and policy makers were faced with a dilemma on whether to ground planes or keep them operating.

He said despite this, they should keep in mind the perceptions around these aircraft, which were not necessarily based on fact, but on the heightened emotions associated with the incident, and people being concerned for their safety.

“In this instance, there is an absence of scientific facts to justify grounding flights. The report on a similar crash that happened in October has not yet been finalised and so the final report and recommendations for this crash may also take a while,” he said.

The SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) also confirmed it knew about the two Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft on the SA register and that one of them was in operation.

Spokesperson Pappie Maja said: “Sacaa is monitoring the situation and will not hesitate to take any preventative measures, but these will be based on facts.”

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