Britain is latest country to ground Boeing MAXs after Ethiopia crash
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Britain joined a growing wave of suspensions of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft yesterday as US President Donald Trump waded into the debate over modern airplane design following a crash in Ethiopia that killed 157 people.
Suspension by Britain, one of the industry鈥檚 most established regulators, was the worst setback yet for Boeing in the wake of Sunday鈥檚 crash and put pressure on regulators in the rest of Europe and the United States to follow suit.
鈥淧ilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT,鈥 Trump tweeted, lamenting that product developers always sought to go an unnecessary step further when 鈥渙ld and simpler鈥 was superior.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know about you, but I don鈥檛 want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!鈥
The cause of Sunday鈥檚 crash, which followed another disaster with a 737 MAX five months ago in Indonesia, remains unknown.
Trump did not refer directly to Boeing or recent accidents.
October鈥檚 Lion Air crash in Indonesia is also unresolved but attention has focused so far on the role of a software system designed to push the plane down as well as airline training and maintenance. Boeing says it plans to update the software in coming weeks.
There is no evidence yet whether the two crashes are linked.
At the same time as London鈥檚 announcement, Norwegian Air said it too would temporarily ground its MAX 8 passenger jets.
Earlier, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and Oman had also temporarily suspended the aircraft, following China, Indonesia and others the day before.
Sunday鈥檚 disaster has wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world鈥檚 biggest planemaker. But experts say it is too early to speculate on the reason for the crash or whether the two are linked. Most crashes are caused by a unique chain of human and technical factors.
Given problems of identification at the charred disaster site, Ethiopian Airlines said it would take at least five days to start handing remains to families.
The victims came from more than 30 different nations, and included nearly two dozen UN staff.
鈥淲e are Muslim and have to bury our deceased immediately,鈥 said Noordin Mohamed, a 27-year-old Kenyan businessman whose brother and mother died.
鈥淟osing a brother and mother in the same day and not having their bodies to bury is very painful,鈥 he said in the Kenyan capital Nairobi where the plane had been due.
It may take weeks or months to identify the victims, who include a prize-winning author, a soccer official and a team of humanitarian workers.
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