Grounding 737s the right move while we wait for answers

How many travellers are affected by the federal government’s decision to ground all Boeing 737 Max aircraft? For Air Canada, which has 24 of the jets in its fleet, the answer is 9,000-12,000 — every day.

That’s up to 12,000 passengers daily who will suffer some degree of inconvenience, from being stranded away from home, to missing vacation or business dates, to having to rebook on a different aircraft, a process that Air Canada admits upfront will be slow and arduous.

None of that is intended to question Transport Minister Marc Garneau’s judgment. He announced the grounding after receiving new evidence showing similarity between this week’s horrific Ethiopian Airlines crash and another one off Indonesia last October.

But those wondering why it took so long for Canada to join many other nations that have already taken similar actions should give some thought to the sheer scale of the logistical and human challenge posed by the grounding. No doubt that’s part of the government’s rationale — it didn’t want to impose that sort of difficulty on passengers and airlines without very compelling evidence, which it finally received this week. As well as the 23 Air Canada flies, WestJet flies 13 of the Max model and Sunwing four. All three carriers were quick to declare their support and co-operation for the measure, but you can bet it will render the air travel marketplace more chaotic than usual, and that’s saying something.

Of course Garneau’s decision is the right one, just as he was right to wait until he and his advisers saw enough credible data to justify grounding the fleet. Based on extensive media coverage since last weekend’s crash, it’s clear consumers have lost confidence in the safety of the aircraft, but that in itself doesn’t justify such drastic action.

And speaking of evidence, there is enough about problems with the Max aircraft to wonder if industry and regulators shouldn’t have acted sooner. Several American pilots have complained about the way the jet has performed in flight. And the complaints are similar.

One pilot reported an anomaly with the autopilot which the pilot said caused the aircraft’s nose to be pointed down for a brief period. Another flight crew member reported the aircraft pitched nose down after the autopilot was engaged during departure. Those and other complaints were made in an online database, which was accessed and reported on by CNN this week.

Sunday’s crash involved a new Ethiopian Airlines Max 8, which crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa. All 157 passengers, including 18 from Canada, perished. The October tragedy was a Lion Air Flight which crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. All 189 aboard died.

With this decision, Canada joins the majority of countries that have banned 737 Max aircraft, including China, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia and others. The U.S., which had been a notable holdout, followed Canada yesterday afternoon.

So now we wait. We wait amid unconfirmed reports and suspicions about a software problem that was diagnosed but untreated, and other theories about what went wrong. And we think about the families who lost loved ones, for whom the waiting is much more than merely inconvenient.

Of course Garneau’s decision is the right one, just as he was right to wait until he and his advisers saw enough credible data to justify grounding the fleet.