Aviation stakeholders seek temporary ban on 737 Max planes

Aviation Roundtable and Safety Initiative (ART), a foremost aviation think-tank group in Nigeria, yesterday advised American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing; the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to temporarily ban all 737 Max aircraft from commercial operations.

This followed the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft B737 Max NG on Sunday, the second within five months coming on the heels of the crash in Indonesia of the same aircraft type operated by the Lions Air in November 2018.

President of ART, Elder Gbenga Olowo in a statement said the series of fatal accidents “call to question the safety in the design of the Max 8 series by the manufacturer and its certification to fly by the US FAA the safety regulation authority in the country of manufacturing”.

The ART noted that it was curious there had been no reported case of such fatal accidents of the aircraft in the US since the aircraft came into operations in 2016.

Olowo said, “While we condole with the families of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate accidents , we call on Boeing, the US FAA and ICAO to jointly consider these recurring fatal accidents on the B737 Max that have collectively claimed about 350 lives of air travellers within five months as a calamity to the global travelling community.’’