Following the tragic accident of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 involving a Boeing 737 MAX 8, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is taking every step necessary to ensure the safety of passengers.
As a precautionary measure, EASA has published today an Airworthiness Directive, effective as of 19:00 (UTC), suspending all flight operations of all Boeing Model 737-8 MAX and 737-9 MAX aeroplanes in Europe. In addition EASA has published a Safety Directive, effective as of 19:00 UTC, suspending all commercial flights performed by third-country operators into, within or out of the EU of the above mentioned models.
The accident investigation is led by the Ethiopian Authorities with the support of the National Transportation Safety Board, as the aircraft was designed and built in the United States. EASA has offered their assistance in supporting the accident investigation.
EASA is continuously analysing the data as it becomes available. The accident investigation is currently ongoing, and it is too early to draw any conclusions as to the cause of the accident.
It is a shame that TUI only grounded its 737 MAX AFTER the EU ordered them and all other airlines to do so. Their first reaction was to continue flying them. I interpreted this attitude as reflecting a very low concern by this company for passengers safety. A note signalling that Easyjet was now TUI made me scrap Easyjet from the companies to be considered in a flight costs comparison yesterday.
Maybe the insurance ceiling for deaths with commercial aircrafts should be drastically raised so the cost benefit analysis of continuing to fly uncertain planes clearly becomes a bad BUSINESS decision. The same scenario already occurred with the Boeing model plane which exploded in flight. The reason had clearly been identified as hot wires next to a fuel tank when the latter contained a large gas bubble after a flight without refuelling. But they kept the model flying. Friends of ours THEN lost their son upon departure from NY.