Donald Trump changed his stance about grounding the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane models. The POTUS has now ordered a ban that will restrict airlines in the US from flying the type of plane that recently crashed in Ethiopia.
Trump stated that as new evidence emerged through the ongoing investigation on why the Ethiopian Airlines' flight ET 302 went down on Sunday, killing all of its 157 passengers, he decided that it would be best to ground the Boeing 737, Max. He made this decision despite the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) insistence that they have found no reason to stop the Boeing 737 Max 8 from flying.
"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," NBC News quoted Trump as saying to the press at the White House on Wednesday.
The POTUS went on to say, "The FAA is prepared to make an announcement very shortly regarding the new information and physical evidence that we've have received from the site, and from other locations and through a couple of other complaints."
Trump ordered for all Boeing 737 Max to land and all airlines and their pilots were already notified about his decision. His announcement came a few hours after Canada relayed that it grounded its fleet of the said Boeing aircraft. Canadian carriers that include Air Canada, Sunwing and Westjet have a combined total of 41 737 Max jets and all of these are now prohibited from the country's airspace.
On grounding the Boeing 737 Max, BBC News quoted Canada's Transport Minister, Marc Garneau, as saying in a press conference, "As a result of new data that we received this morning, and had the chance to analyze, and on the advice of my experts and as a precautionary measure, I issued a safety notice."
The minister added, "This safety notice restricts commercial passenger flights from any operator of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 or MAX 9 variant aircraft, whether domestic or foreign, from arriving, departing or overflying Canadian air space."
Garneau also stressed that the safety notice is effective immediately. He also said that the order will remain in effect until they issue a new notice. Further, in an effort to justify why it is grounding the planes, Garneau detailed the problem with Boeing 737 Max's software.
"The software kicked in and tried to force the nose down and the pilot said 'no, no, I have to climb. Unfortunately, the pilot lost that fight with this software," he said.
But then again, the minister noted that this detail is not yet conclusive as more test are needed to prove this was what really happened to the doomed Ethiopian Air's flight ET 302. He said that they are hoping the black box will shed light as to what transpired in the cockpit before the plane crashed.
Meanwhile, prior to the U.S. and Canada's grounding announcement, China, India, Australia, and Europe were the first ones to ground the Boeing 737 Max aircraft. These countries ordered the ban a day following the tragic air disaster in Ethiopia.
