Ethiopian Airlines Grounds Its Entire Boeing 737-8 Max Fleet Until Further Notice
The Somali government has sent condolences to the government and people of Ethiopia following the crash of the Ethiopian Airline on Sunday, which claimed lives of 157 people including three Somalis: “I am saddened by the tragic accident on Flight ET302. On behalf of the government and the people of Somalia, I send my deepest condolences and sympathies,” said President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo in a Twitter post.
In a separate official statement, the Foreign Affairs ministry expressed solidarity with the government of Ethiopia, families and individuals following yesterday’s tragic event. A senior staff in the Prime Minister’s office, Abdishakur Mohamed Shahaad, and two other Somali nationals, were among passengers aboard the ill-fated Ethiopian Airline, which crashed six minutes after taking off from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
The late Shahaad, who was a protocol officer at the PM’s office over the last two years, was on transit at Ethiopia’s Bole Airport returning to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, via Nairobi. Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire, offered his condolences to the family and friends of the staffer: “We are deeply saddened by the tragedy involving Ethiopian Airlines’ passenger plane. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families.”
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737, on a regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, crashed on Sunday morning around Bishoftu, 47 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa. All the 149 passengers and eight crew members on board were killed. The aircraft, B 737-800 MAX, with registration number, ET- AVJ, took off at 08:38 am, local time, from Addis Ababa, Bole International Airport and lost contact at 08:44 am. The victims were of 35 nationalities.
Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its entire Boeing 737-8 Max fleet until further notice in the wake of a crash that killed all 157 people. Clarifying that the cause of the Sunday accident was still unknown, the airline said it had decided to ground that particular fleet “as an extra safety precaution”.
The move came after China’s aviation authorities ordered the country’s airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 jets. The Sunday disaster is the second one involving the new aircraft fleet over the last four months. In October, a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea, off the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, killing all 189 on board.
On Sunday, Ethiopian Airlines ET 302 on its way to Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after take-off. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60km (40 miles) southeast of the Ethiopian capital kill all 157 people on board, including an aide of the Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, and two other Somali nationals. .
The civil aviation administration of China (CAAC) issued a notice on Monday ordering domestic airlines to suspend the commercial operation of the Boeing 737- Max 8 aircraft before 6 pm. Referring to the Boeing 737 Max 8 as a Boeing 737-8, the CAAC said it made the decision “in view of the fact that the two air crashes involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 aircrafts” and had “certain similarities.”
