Nigeria allays fears as more countries ground Boeing 737 MAX

The Federal Government has allayed fears of Nigerians that the country has no any Boeing 737 Max on its register to rattle air travellers.

This is even as the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has banned the Boeing 737 MAX from operating in or over UK airspace “as a precautionary measure.”

A statement yesterday by the Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika, said: “We wish to reassure Nigerians that we do not have any Boeing 737 Max on Nigeria’s register to worry about.”

Uk’s decision and Nigeria’s aviation minister’s clarification come after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed on Sunday, killing 157 people on board. It was the second fatal accident involving the 737 Max 8 model in less than five months.

In a statement, the CAA said the directive would remain in place until further notice because it did not currently have “sufficient information” from the flight data recorder about the fatal crash.

China, France, and Germany have also grounded the jets while US officials say the aircraft are still safe to fly.

In a statement released on Monday, Nigerian carrier, Air Peace, said it had no immediate plan to cancel its order for ten of the aircraft’s model for its fleet operating in Nigeria.

The airline’s spokesperson, Chris Iwarah, said, “At this moment, it is premature to begin to talk about things and conclusions that have not been put in the public domain. Investigations into the crashes involving B737Max 800 are on-going. So, it will not be fair at this time to begin to make definite comments on those issues.”

Air Peace and the American aircraft manufacturer, The Boeing Company, had on September 13, 2018, signed a deal for the delivery of 10 brand new B737 MAX 800 aircraft.

The Boeing 737 MAX fleet of aircraft are in the latest successful 737 line and the group includes the Max 7, 8, 9 and 10 models.

By the end of January, Boeing had delivered 350 of the Max 8 model out of 5,011 orders. A small number of Max 9s are also operating.