President Donald Trump said the U.S. will be grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 and 737 Max 9 planes, following a number of other countries that have moved to stop the airliners from flying following two deadly crashes involving the Max 8 models.
“We’re going to be issuing an emergency order of prohibition to ground all flights of the 737 Max 8 and the 737 Max 9 and planes associated with that line,” Trump said.
Any plane that is currently in the air will go to its destination and thereafter be grounded until further notice, Trump said. The president made the comments Wednesday afternoon while receiving a briefing on drug trafficking along the Southern Border.
You can see a live map of all the 737 Max 8 planes in U.S. airspace right now.
In a statement, the FAA said it has made the decision to ground the models “as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site and analyzed today.” The planes will be grounded pending further investigation.
The emergency order of prohibition says that on Wednesday, the investigation into Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash found new information about the aircraft’s configuration just after takeoff and newly refined satellite data from tracking of the plane’s flight path indicates similarities with the Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October 2018.
According to the FAA, the similarities warrant further investigation of the possibility of a shared cause for the two crashes.
Boeing said in a statement shortly after Trump’s announcement that it continues to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 Max.
The statement continued that after consulting with U.S. aviation officials and with aviation authorities and customers around the world, it will recommend to the FAA the temporary suspension of operations of the entire fleet of 371 737 Max aircrafts. The company said the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety.”
According to the FAA, there are 74 Boeing 737 Max models registered to U.S. airlines. American Airlines and Southwest are the only two airlines that fly the Boeing 737 Max 8 models, according to The New York Times. United Airlines flies the 737 Max 9 planes, according to information on Boeing’s website. American Airlines said 24 of its aircrafts are affected by the directive.
“Earlier today the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) informed us that based on new information, they are grounding the United States Boeing 737 MAX fleet out of an abundance of caution,” American Airlines said in a statement.
“American Airlines has 24 aircraft affected by this directive. We appreciate the FAA’s partnership, and will continue to work closely with them, the Department of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board and other regulatory authorities, as well as our aircraft and engine manufacturers. Our teams will be working to rebook customers as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”
Southwest said in a statement that it is immediately complying with Wednesday’s FAA requirement. The airline said it has removed the 34 Max 8 aircrafts from scheduled service. The Max 8 planes account for less than five percent of Southwest’s daily flights, the airline said.
United said it is grounding 14 737 Max planes, which account for roughly 40 flights per day.
Trump’s announcement comes a day after the FAA said its review “shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft.” The announcement also came on the same day that officials in Canada said the planes would be grounded.
Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is a breaking news story. Refresh for updates.
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