Boeing 737 Max flights banned from UK and EU after tragedy

PASSENGER FLIGHTS using Boeing’s 737 Max plane have been banned from operating in the UK and European Union amid safety concerns after the Ethiopian Airlines disaster.

The Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) ruling covers all commercial flights in UK airspace and will remain in place “until further notice” following the tragedy which killed 157 people, including nine Britons. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency later banned all Max 8 and Max 9 planes from operating in its airspace.

It comes after two people with links to Yorkshire were named among the dead.

Sam Pegram, a 25-year-old former University of Leeds student, was named among them following news that Joseph Waithaka, 55, who lived in Hull for a decade, also passed away in the disaster.

Mr Waithaka was on his way back to Kenya from a trip to see his family and meet his twomonth-old granddaughter.

A CAA spokesman yesterday said: “The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder, we have as a precautionary measure issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace.”

A pair of Turkish Airlines 737 Max 8 services to London Gatwick and Birmingham returned to Istanbul mid-flight.

A number of other countries around the world have banned the 737 Max 8, which was the model involved when Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 to Nairobi crashed shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday.

This includes Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, China, Australia, Singapore, Oman and Indonesia, but flights are continuing in the US and Canada.

Tui Airways has the only five 737 Max 8 aircraft operated by a UK-based airline, and confirmed the planes have been grounded following the CAA’s decision.

A Tui UK spokesman said its customers will “travel on holiday as planned on other aircraft”.

Brian Strutton, general secretary of pilots’ union Balpa, welcomed the CAA’s ruling, saying: “Safety must come first.”

Mr Strutton said: “It is too early to know the cause of the latest crash and it is vital that air accident investigators carry out a thorough investigation to identify the cause so that measures to prevent future accidents can be put in place.”

Mr Pegram graduated from the University of Leeds in 2015 with a degree in international relations.

The keen footballer, originally from Lancashire, then completed a Masters in international human rights law at the University of York.

Mr Pegram was yesterday named among the victims.

He was working in an aid role for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Mr Pegram’s mother, Deborah, told the Lancashire Evening Post: “Sam was so looking forward to going to Nairobi. He loved the work he was doing.

“We can’t believe this has happened. We’re totally devastated.”

Mr Pegram had dedicated his life to humanitarian work and had previously helped refugees in Jordan.

The British victims also included “soft and loving” Joanna Toole, a United Nations worker from Devon, polar tourism expert Sarah Auffret, and Sahra Hassan Said and Nasrudin Abdulkadir, a mother and son with dual Somali-British citizenship.

On Monday former airline pilot Lord Tunnicliffe called on Ministers at Westminster to stop the aircraft flying until there was “a satisfactory explanation” of the fatal Ethiopia crash.

He said: “In my day we had a rule – if it can go wrong it will go wrong. The industry seems to have lost sight of this rule. I believe everybody involved will be shown to be in dereliction of their duty.”

Boeing said in a statement it has “full confidence in the safety of the 737 Max”.