By Ogova Ondego
Published March 12, 2019
Would you knowingly and willingly board a Boeing 737 Max 8 passenger aircraft?
That is the question many frequent flyers around the world are grappling with following the second crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 passenger plane in less than five months that, together with the first on October 29, 2018, have robbed humanity of 346 lives. That airlines around the world are grounding their 737 MAX 8 planes does little to allay the mounting fear of air travellers; just how safe is the Boeing 737 Max 8 Plane?
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I just heard a United States of America-based aviation lawyer tell Alan Kasujja of Newsday, a BBC World Service programme, that she would not knowingly board a 737 Max 8 plane. And she appears to be speaking for many a traveller around the world.
Ethiopia, whose Flight ET 302 claimed 157 lives when its 210-seat plane crashed enroute to Nairobi on March 10, 2019, has suspended the use of the plane as have China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Cayman, Morocco, Mexico and Singapore.
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Touted as delivering high-value returns to its operators due to its ‘lower maintenance and operating costs … regardless of business model or market’ as eTurboNews puts it, the world was stunned on October 29, 2018 when a brand new Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Lion Air of Indonesia crashed, killing all 189 people on board. But it is Ethiopian’s Flight 302, not Lion Air’s Flight 610 that appears to have raised even more concerns about the safety of passengers on Boeing’s best-selling commercial plane.
Investigation into the cause of the Lion and Ethiopian air tragedies may not be conclusive; the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States of America may have cautioned against ‘drawing similarities’ between the crashes; but analysts suggest a common technical glitch is to blame.
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They point out that both planes were brand new. That the pilots of both airliners issued emergency alerts. That it was too late to save either plane. That both aircraft crashed shortly after take off. That both accidents snuffed life out of everyone on board.
“This investigation has just begun and to date we have not been provided data to draw any conclusions or take any actions,” FAA stresses.
This notwithstanding, Singapore has on March 12 announced that it is “temporarily suspending operation of all variants of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft into and out of Singapore in light of two fatal accidents involving Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in less than five months.”
Mexico’s national carrier, Aeromexico, too, has said it is is grounding its six Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft “until it has conclusive information about the investigation into the unfortunate accident with flight ET 302.”
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