AP reports Tuesday afternoon: “Britain, France and Germany on Tuesday joined a rapidly growing number of countries grounding or closing airspace to a new Boeing plane involved in the Ethiopian Airlines disaster, as a global team of investigators began looking for parallels with a similar crash just five months ago. … Oman, Norwegian Air Shuttle and South Korean airline Eastar Jet were among the latest to halt use of the Boeing model. Malaysia, Australia and Singapore suspended all flights into or out of their countries.”
PAUL HUDSON, paul at flyersrights.org, @flyersrights
Hudson is president of Flyersrights.org and has been a member of FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee since 1993.
He just appeared on NPR’s “Up First.” The group has “called on the FAA to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8 Aircraft after two fatal accidents in the past five months have claimed 346 lives.
“Lion Air crashed in October 2018 after pilots were unable to override an automatic control system (MCAS or Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) that was not clearly disclosed by Boeing to airlines and pilots. Although it is too early to identify the cause of Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash, early signs point to the same problem.”
Corporate Crime Reporter states in “Calls Mount for FAA to Ground Boeing 737 Max 8” that Hudson wrote to Dan Elwell, acting director of the FAA: “If you fail to do so now and a third crash occurs, you will be responsible. You will always be remembered for this decision.” CCR also reports: “Ethiopian Airlines, Cayman Airlines and Comair have grounded their Boeing Max 8 planes. But Southwest Airlines continues to stand by the plane, which has 34 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes, refusing calls from passengers to ground it.”
Hudson added: “The FAA’s ‘wait and see’ attitude risks lives as well as the safety reputation of the U.S. aviation industry. Even assuming this design defect should not by itself take the aircraft out of service, the failure to warn airlines and pilots of the new feature, and the inadequacy of training requirements, necessitate an immediate temporary grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 8.”
FlyersRights.org is the nation’s largest airline passenger organization. It publishes a weekly newsletter and operates a hotline for passengers, (877) FLYERS6.