Global Boeing fears grow, families await Ethiopia crash remains
ADDIS ABABA/SINGAPORE - Singapore and Australia became the latest nations to suspend Boeing 737 MAX aircraft yesterday, while identification of the Ethiopian Airlines crash’s 157 victims dragged and black box recorders were yet to yield the cause.
Sunday’s disaster - following another fatal crash of a 737 MAX jet in Indonesia five months ago - has caused alarm in the international aviation industry and wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world’s biggest planemaker.
Safety experts say it is too early to speculate on what caused Sunday’s crash or whether the two recent accidents are linked. Most accidents are caused by a unique chain of events combining human and technical factors.
The victims came from more than 30 different nations, and included nearly two dozen U.N. staff.
Given the problems identifying them at the charred disaster site, Ethiopia Airlines said it would take at least five days to start handing remains to families.
“We are Muslim and have to bury our deceased immediately,” Noordin Mohamed, a 27-year-old Kenyan businessman whose brother and mother died, told Reuters.
Ethiopian Airlines flight 320 came down in a field soon after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, creating a fireball in a crater. It may be weeks or months before all the victims are identified.
Anxiety was also evident among travellers, who rushed to find out from social media whether they were booked to fly on 737 MAX planes - the same model involved in the Lion Air crash off Indonesia that killed 189 people in October.
Black box recorders were found from the Ethiopian crash site on Monday, but it was unclear where they would be looked at.
So long as the recordings are undamaged, the cause of the crash could be identified quickly, although it typically takes a year to fully complete an investigation.
But Singapore and Australia’s aviation authorities - following China, Indonesia and others - said temporary suspension of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in and out of their airports was necessary during a safety review. – REUTERS.