Indian aviation authority grounds all of Boeing 737 Max airplanes
Times News Service
MUSCAT: India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that it will ground the operations of all of the country’s Boeing 737 MAX airplanes.
The news comes in the wake of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 suffering a fatal crash on Sunday, 10 March, just six minutes after it took from Addis Ababa at 8:38 am. All 157 people on board – 149 passengers and eight crew – lost their lives in that accident.
A statement from the Ministry of Civil Aviation said, “B 737 MAX operations will stop to and from all Indian airports. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has taken the decision to ground the Boeing 737 MAX planes immediately. These planes will be grounded till appropriate modifications and safety measures are undertaken to ensure their safe operations.
The ministry further added, “As always, passenger safety remains our top priority. We continue to consult closely with regulators around the world, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers to ensure passenger safety.”
Suresh Prabhu, India’s Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, said he had instructed officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to undertake a safety assessment of Boeing 737-MAX being flown by domestic carriers.
“While passenger safety is a zero tolerance issue, efforts are already on to minimise the impact on passenger movement as their convenience is important.”
Moreover, Indian commercial airliner Spice Jet has also decided to cancel 14 flights scheduled to take off on Wednesday.
“Spice Jet has suspended Boeing 737 MAX operations following DGCA’s decision to ground the aircraft. ” said Tushar Srivastava, Head of Communications at Spice Jet.
“We will be working with the regulator and the manufacturer and we are confident of accommodating the vast majority of our passengers and minimising inconvenience. We will be operating additional flights from tomorrow; of the 76 planes in our fleet, 64 are still in operation”
Spice Jet have also offered a full refund to those passengers who do not wish to fly to their destinations on alternate aircraft being offered.
“While a majority of passengers affected as a result of these cancellations have been accommodated by SpiceJet on alternate flights, the rest have been offered a full-refund,” he added.
“Safety and security of our passengers, crew and operations are of utmost importance to us. We are actively engaged with both Boeing and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and will continue to put safety first, as always. We have already implemented all additional precautionary measures as directed by the DGCA yesterday.”