Nine 737 MAX 8 planes stowed at Tulsa maintenance base

TULSA — American Airlines officials parked nine of its 24 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at its Tulsa maintenance base. Seven of the jets, 737 MAX 8s, arrived earlier this week, and the last two arrived Friday, American Airlines spokeswoman Linda Brock said. "No additional directive has been given by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), and no specific work is being done around the grounding, although we may do some routine maintenance work on the planes," Brock said in a statement. Federal authorities grounded the aircraft, 737 MAX 8s and MAX 9s, on Wednesday after one of the jets crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 on board. Four months earlier, a similar crash occurred of the same model in Indonesia. That crash killed 189 people. Tulsa International Airport officials said no carrier at the airport has the 737 MAX fleet in its regular flight schedule. American Airlines is storing the jets at its maintenance base until further notice. American, on average, operated 85 flights per day on the MAX 8. Most of those flights are concentrated in Miami, Florida. American operates an average of 6,700 flights per day, according to a news release. Federal Aviation Authority officials said Wednesday that the grounding of the MAX aircraft will remain effective "pending further investigation" of the crash in Ethiopia. The investigation may take months to complete, officials said. The MAX 8 has been in operation for about a year.