Airline regulators across the globe are grounding Boeing 737 Max 8 planes, joining an ever expanding list of countries banning the plane from their airspace. This comes in the wake of Sunday's deadly plane crash in Ethiopia that killed all 157 people on board. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
The latest move came Tuesday from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) when it announced a suspension of two Boeing 737 Max models in all flights in the European bloc.
The wave of bans follows the Civil Aviation Administration of China's decision on Monday to order the country's airlines to suspend all commercial operations of their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration does not plan to ground the jets in the United States but is facing growing pressure to do so.
The FAA announced Monday that it would require a series of design changes for the Boeing 737 Max fleet.
In the U.S., Southwest Airlines uses a fleet of 34 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft and is not planning any change in service. Likewise, American Airlines, which operates 24 of the planes, is not planning to ground them.
The full list of countries and airlines that have announced a ban is below:
—Argentina (Aerolíneas Argentinas)—Australia—Austria—Belgium—Brazil (GOL Linhas Aéreas)—Cayman Islands (Cayman Airways)—China—Ethiopia—EASA member states—France—Germany—Iceland (Icelandair)—India—Indonesia—Ireland—Italy—Malaysia—Mexico (Aeromexico)—Mongolia (MIAT Mongolian Airlines)—Morocco (Royal Air Maroc)—Netherlands—Norway (Norwegian)—Oman—Poland—Singapore—South Africa (Comair)—South Korea (Eastar Jet)—Turkey—United Kingdom (TUI Airways)
Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
