Britain on Tuesday became the first European country to suspend flights by Boeing 737 MAX aircraft over its territory in the wake of the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane of that model. “The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder we have,
as a precautionary measure, issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace,” the agency said. “The UK Civil Aviation Authority’s safety directive will be in place until further notice,” it added. “We remain in close contact with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and industry regulators globally.”The UK’s ban applies to the entire series of Boeing MAX jets, not just the 8s, a Civil Aviation Authority official told CNN, which reported that two Icelandair MAX 8 flights were in British airspace after the announcement.
Flight 555 was en route from Brussels to Keflavik, Iceland, while Flight 471 was headed to the same town from London’s Gatwick Airport. Meanwhile, Norwegian Airlines also suspended its use of the 737 MAX. “In response to the temporary suspension of Being 737 MAX operations by multiple aviation authorities we have taken the decision to not operate flights using this aircraft type until advised otherwise by the relevant aviation authorities,”
the airline’s acting chief operating officer said in a statement. “We would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused, however, safety will always remain our top priority.” Norwegian has over 110 Boeing 737-800 planes that are not affected by the decision.
Source: New York Post