China, UK among latest countries to join Ethiopia in suspending use of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft

China & UK are among the growing number of nations across the globe that have joined Ethiopia in suspending Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts from operating in their airspace. The order came after Ethiopian airline’s plane crashed on Sunday killing all 157 passengers on board. The plane was the second Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to crash in just five months after another one crashed shortly after takeoff in Indonesia in October 2018.    

As of Tuesday 1736 (EAT), Malaysia, Norway, Australia, Singapore, several countries in Latin America and more than 20 airlines had grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft over safety concerns.

The 737 Max 8 plane is Boeing’s newest version of a narrow-body aircraft released to the market in 2017. So far, Boeing has supplied 350 such models to airlines across the world and it has over 4,500 pending orders.

Ethiopian airlines grounded the remaining four aircraft belonging to the ill-fated Boeing model as a safety precaution.