Turkish Airlines has grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, including those already on the air. UK and Norway also joined the ever-increasing number of countries who temporarily ban the flights on 737 Max 8’s.
Bilal Eksi, the CEO of Turkish Airlines said in a tweet that “all 737 Max aircraft will be removed from commercial flights starting on 13th March until the situation regarding flight safety on these planes are clarified and secured”. The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority has also banned the Boeing 737 Max’s from operating in or over UK airspace.
Many countries have banned the aircraft after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on Sunday killing 157 people on board. And it was not the first fatal accident involving this specific 737 model. Last October, another Boeing 737 Max 8 flied by Indonesia’s Lion Air crashed on tis way to Pangkalpinang killing all 189 people in the plane.
Apart from Ethiopia and Indonesia, many other countries including Singapore, Australia, China, France, Germany, Turkey, Ireland, Norway and Malaysia have also grounded the jets. The officials in the US, though, still insist that the American-made aircraft are “safe to fly”, according to the BBC.