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Airlines ground aircraft after crash

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BANGKOK, 12 March 2019: Leading airlines worldwide are grounding their Boeing’s 737 Max 8 fleets after a deadly crash on Sunday.

A Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board.

Circumstances were similar to an October 2018 crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people.

On Monday, China’s Civil Aviation Administration was the first to order its airlines to ground all of the country’s 96 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines also grounded its fleet in response to the accident.

Airlines are substituting the 737 Max 8 aircraft with Boeing 737-800s.

It was the second crash of the 737 MAX 8 since it was introduced in 2017. Last October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board.

China’s CAAC said it would notify airlines as to when they could resume flying the jets after contacting Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure flight safety.

“Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity,” the CAAC said, adding that the order was in line with its principle of zero-tolerance on safety hazards.

Singapore Airlines’ subsidiary SilkAir operates the 737 MAX 8, but so far they are still flying, although SIA said it was monitoring the situation closely.

(This report first appeared on Reuters news service.)

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