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After the fatal air crash that killed 149 passengers, including four Indians, and eight crew in a damage control exercise the Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet .
“Following the tragic accident of ET 302… Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday, March 10, until further notice,” the state-owned carrier said in a statement released on Twitter.
Accident Bulletin no. 5 Issued on March 11, 2019 at 07:08 AM Local Time pic.twitter.com/rwxa51Fgij
— Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 11, 2019
The airlines said that although it had idea about the cause of the accident, they had decided to ground the fleet as a precautionary measure.
All 157 people on board died when Nairobi-bound Flight ET 302 came down just six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa.
The Boeing 737 took-off from Bole International Airport on Sunday and “lost contact” six minutes later before coming down near Tulu Fara village outside the Ethiopian town of Bishoftu. People from 35 countries were reportedly on board the flight ET 302 when it ploughed into a field, 60-kilometre southeast of Addis Ababa.
China also grounded its fleet of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in the aftermath. Among the dead were tourists, business travellers, and UN staff headed for a conference.
The Ethiopian plane had been delivered to the company in November and was one of 30 meant for the airlines. The jet’s last maintenance was on February 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours.
