Boeing’s MAX back in Miami-LaG flight

An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX carried 87 paying passengers from Miami to LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday in the plane’s first U.S. revenue trip since it was grounded in March 2019 after a pair of deadly crashes killed 346 people.

“We’re flying on a Boeing 737 MAX,” the plane’s captain, Sean Roskey, told passengers, according to NBC News. “We have the utmost confidence in this aircraft. As a matter of fact, my wife is on board.”

Also aboard the flight were several American Airlines employees, including the company’s president, Robert Isom.

The flight landed at LaGuardia several minutes ahead of its scheduled 1:30 p.m. arrival time. It returned to Miami later in the afternoon with 151 passengers, the airline said.

American, which gave customers the option to change to a different plane if they wished, will send one Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from Miami to New York and back every day until Jan. 4.

The airline will then expand its number of commercial flights using Boeing 737 MAX planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved the plane in November, and airlines in Brazil and Mexico have already operated the MAX on about 600 flights, according to data collected by FlightRadar24.

The FAA and other aviation authorities grounded the MAX after a deadly crashes October 2018 in Indonesia and another in March 2019 in Ethiopia.

Airlines were required to install new flight control and cockpit display software and revise the pilot manuals for the plane, among other fixes.