Boeing 737 Max 8 planes grounded after Ethiopian crash | CNN (2024)

The flight recorders for Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 have arrived in Paris, where they will be analyzed for potential clues into Sunday’s plane crash.

A French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety spokesman said that the two black boxes would contain flight parameters as well as conversations in the co*ckpit.

He said there were less than a dozen laboratories around the world capable of reading the devices.

“When the black boxes have not (been damaged), the tapes or hard disks are intact, the data is easily recoverable. However, it also happens that entire passages of the recording are more or less damaged,” he said, adding that the analysis could take days.

Ethiopia had requested France’s assistance investigating the material as their country didn’t have the equipment necessary.

In the past 24 hours, international concern over the possible dangers of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 aircraft has only continued to grow.

US President Donald Trump announced Wednesday afternoon he would immediately ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 aircraft, amid concerns over their involvement in two major plane crashes less than six months apart.

Boeing issued a statement saying they would recommend the temporary global suspension of the entire 737 Max fleet. Fifty countries have now grounded or banned the planes inside their airspace.

It has only been four days since the Ethiopian Airlines crash which killed 157 people and sparked the growing backlash.

On Thursday morning, the plane’s black box is expected to arrive in Paris for analysis, potentially providing answers to victims’ families still mourning their loved ones.

You can catch up on our coverage by following the links below:

Boeing announced on Wednesday it would be recommending the grounding all Boeing 737 Max 8 planes globally “out of an abundance of caution.”

But the move hasn’t stopped countries taking matters into their own hands, with Mexico, Panama and Thailand all subsequently announcing they would be suspending Boeing 737 Max jets temporarily.

In total, 50 countries have now grounded or banned the controversial Max 8 models which were involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash Sunday.

A Boeing stock sign is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 11.

Following the announcement by US President Donald Trump that Boeing’s 737 Max planes would be grounded across the country, the aerospace company’s stock value plunged.

Shares of Boeing immediately fell 3% after Trump’s announcement. They later recovered to close slightly higher by the end of the day.

But since the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday, Boeing’s stock has lost more than 10% of its value, wiping out more than $25 billion of the company’s market value.

Read the full article here.

Forensics investigators and recovery teams work at the crash site near Bishoftu.

The black boxes from Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 are due to arrive in Paris for analysis on Thursday morning, a vital clue into what caused the Sunday crash which killed 157 people.

The French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) will conduct the investigation into the recorders but a spokesman for the bureau said they wouldn’t be announcing the results.

“Only the Ethiopian authorities will report on the progress of the investigation. There will be no press conference,” a BEA spokesman told CNN Wednesday.

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam told CNN’s Richard Quest on Tuesday that Ethiopia did not have the necessary equipment to perform analysis tasks on its own and would work alongside external analysts.

Mexico became the 50th country to take action against Boeing 737 Max 8 planes on Wednesday evening, following the United States decision earlier in the day to suspend the planes’ operation inside the country.

The General Directorate of Civil Aviation said they were banned until further notice to “guarantee the safety and confidence” of aircraft flying in Mexican airspace.

Since China’s decision to ground its Boeing Max jets on Monday, more and more countries around the world have banned the use of Boeing 737 Max planes inside their airspace.

South Korea’s largest airline, Korean Air, announced Thursday it would be putting on hold plans to introduce Boeing 737 Max 8s into their fleet.

“Korean Air had originally scheduled to introduce the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts to its (air) routes from May,” the statement said. Instead, the airline will use other planes in their place.

It is just another reminder of the economic cost of the worldwide ban to Boeing.

Wall Street firms Melius Research and Jefferies estimate a three-month grounding could cost the US aerospace company up to $5 billion.

China was the first country in the world to ground their fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8 planes on Monday, which set off a chain reaction around the world.

In an editorial Wednesday, state-run tabloid Global Times told Boeing it had to take “responsibility” for the crisis and reprimanded the US government for “protecting” them.

“Such protection of a company seems incredible to Chinese, yet in US society it seems to make sense thanks to the US political system,” the editorial said.

It’s a bold statement which might strike some observers as ironic given the Chinese government’s unequivocal statements in recent months supporting tech giant Huawei during its legal troubles with the US.

The article also praised Boeing as a “giant in the aerospace industry” but added it had to be “modest and cautious as any startup company” given the recent news.

Another country has joined the international pushback against Boeing and its 737 Max 8 aircraft, within hours of the US announcement.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand announced all operations of Max 8 and Max 9 planes would be temporarily suspended until midnight on March 20.

“Currently, there is no clear indication for the actual cause of accidents in Indonesia & Ethiopia, and no evident risk management measures or any mechanism to ensure the safety of 737 Max 9 aircraft from the aircraft manufacturer,” the statement said.

More than 40 countries have now suspended operations of the planes following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302.

Dave Wasserman took this video ofa United Airlines employee announcing to passengers the airline’s plan to ground its 737 Max 9 aircraft at George Bush Intercontinental Airport today.

Watch the moment:

PassengerMortGreenbergwas waiting at the gate in Miami on American Airlines Flight 2809 when the news broke that President Trump was grounding all Boeing Max 8 planes.

He was scheduled to fly on a Max 8 plane. His flight, however, has been canceled, according to American Airlines’ website.

“Airport staff were upfront and said that was reason. Moments later news came out about Presidents order. Entire terminal just cleared out. But in 5 minutes or so AA had send me a notice of rebooking without even having to ask,”Greenbergtold CNN on Twitter.

Greenberg, who works in advertising sales, was supposed to be flying into LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg and President Donald Trump spoke before the grounding announcement this afternoon, Boeing tells CNN.

Afterwards, Trump told reporters the move was more precautionary than mandatory.

“I didn’t want to take any chances. We didn’t have to make this decision today,” he said. “We could have delayed it. We maybe didn’t have to make it at all. But I felt it was important both psychologically and in a lot of other ways.”

Trump said his decision was fact-based, even as he admitted it was made partly with regard for the mental well-being of American travelers. “The safety of the American people, of all people, is our paramount concern,” Trump said.

The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) said it supported the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to order a temporary grounding of all Boeing 737 Max aircraft that are operated by US airlines or over US skies.

Meanwhile, the union said it would monitor the situation.

“We strongly encourage the investigative authorities responsible to expedite the investigationof Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and identify any corrective action if necessary in order to return this aircraft to service,” the union said in a statement.

A flight attendant union said the decision to ground Boing 737 Max planes is “good news.”

Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, urged everyone to “focus on the needed fix, rather than the uncertainty of flight.”

Nelson continued: “We must be leaders in safety, always. We thank all who spoke up. Aviation workers will always stand up for safety. We have that ability and right through our union. It’s important to recognize the critical role unions play in raising issues, demanding the best of ourselves, of management, and government.”

The company that provided the satellite data that informed the FAA’s decision to ground Boeing’s Max 737 planes did so on Monday, according to Jessie Hillenbrand, director of Public Relations at Aireon.

Transport Canada received it Tuesday evening.

Hillenbrand said Aireon provided the data, which shows Ethiopian plane’s flight position data, to authorities who requested it. The company does not analyze the information, she said, they just provide it.

Hillenbrand said they don’t have any information about the crash itself. But the data sent shows the flight’s path as captured by satellites as it travels. She said the “aircraft transmits its position twice a second, our satellites catch it. We have caught that data in real time and provided that to authorities.”

American Airlines said it will comply with the order to ground its fleet of 24 Boeing 737 Max planes and it plans to rebook passengers.

“American Airlines has 24 aircraft affected by this directive,” the airline said.

Read the airline’s statement below:

Southwest Airlines said in a statement it is “aware of media reports stating that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet will be grounded in the United States.”

Southwest has the biggest fleet of the airplane with 34 in operation.

Speaking with reporters on a conference call, acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell said the grounding of the 737 Max 8 and 9 will remain in effect pending new information including from the flight data recorder and voice recorder.

“Since this accident occurred we were resolute that we would not take action until we had data,” Elwell said.

Elwell said the new data was “added fidelity – missing pieces that we did not have prior to today.”It aligned the Ethiopian flight data to the Lion Air incident.

Elwell declined to guess how long the grounding would last but he said he hoped to keep it “as short as possible.”

“I can’t and I don’t want to hazard a guess as to how long.My hope is that the FAA, the carriers, the manufacturer, that all parties will work very hard to make this grounding as short as possible so that these airplanes can get back up into the sky,” he said.

Update 4:06 p.m. ET: The FAA says the data “indicates some similarities” in its emergency order. See it:

The FAA tweeted that “new evidence collected at the site and analyzed today” impacted the agency’s decision to order a temporary grounding of all Boeing 737 Max aircraft that are operated by US airlines or over US skies.

In a second tweet the FAA said the order prohibiting the operation of Boeing’s 737-8 and 737-9 MAX airplanes was effective immediately.

Read the statement:

The US is the latest country to ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, joining a list of more than 40 countries that have done so.

Here’s a look at where the jets are grounded:

Approximately 30 Boeing 737 Max airplanes were traveling in US airspace at the moment President Trump announced that they would, upon reaching their destinations, be grounded.

The above map, tweeted by Flightradar24, shows where they are located.

After nearly every country in the world determined that Boeing’s 737 Max airplane should be kept on the ground, Boeing finally relented on Wednesday afternoon and said, in a statement, that it would tell the FAA to ground its entire fleet.

It cited no additional findings or data, rather said the plane should be suspended “out of an abundance of caution and in order to reassure the flying public of the aircraft’s safety.”

“We are supporting this proactive step out of an abundance of caution. Safety is a core value at Boeing for as long as we have been building airplanes; and it always will be,” Dennis Muilenburg, president of Boeing, said.

Boeing, the company said, makes this recommendation and supports the decision by the FAA.

President Trump said he spoke with a number of airlines as well, including American Airlines, before grounding the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

He said he also worked closely with Canada and other countries. Trump said this was the best decision, “psychologically and in other ways.”

He said the FAA will be making an announcement within half an hour.

President Trump, speaking Wednesday afternoon at the White House, announced that the US would be issuing an “emergency orderto ground all 737 Max 8 and the737 Max 9, and planes associatedwith that line.”

He added that both the FAA and Boeing were “in agreementwith the action,” and any planes currently in the air would continue to their destination where they will be grounded.

“Pilots have been notified, airlines have been all notified. Airlines are agreeing with this. The safety of the American people and all people is our paramount concern,” the President said.

Watch Trump’s announcement:

Air Canada, until this afternoon was one of a few carriers still flying the Boeing 737 Max, said it would follow Transport Canada’s safety notice that bans the plane from Canadian airspace and work to rebook its passengers on other available aircraft.

However, due to the size of its operation, customers should expect delays.

On Twitter, the airline added that anyone currently onboard a 737 Max can expect to continue to their destination.

Despite the actions of other aviation regulators worldwide, the Federal Aviation Administration sees no need to ground the Boeing 737 Max 8 fleetat this pointbecause it believesthe aircraft is operating as intended, according to a person familiar with the FAA deliberations.

“All of the data available tells us this airplane is performing to its certifications,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the non-public deliberations.

The source continued:

One note: The person spoke before Canadian authorities announced they had reviewed new tracking dataand would ground the Max series.

The person’scomments clarified and echoed the statement from FAA Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell Tuesday evening.He said the FAA’s “review shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft.”

Elsell also said the agency would take“immediate and appropriate action” if it learns new information.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg speaks during a round table discussion with President Donald Trump following a tour of the Boeing Company in St. Louis, Missouri on March 14, 2018.

A global grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 airliner is drawing new attention to the close ties between the manufacturer and the Trump administration, which so far is refusing calls to join every other country in suspending use of the plane in the United States.

President Donald Trump has touted Boeing sales across the globe – including two weeks ago in Vietnam – and has cultivated close relationships with the company’s executives. His acting defense secretary served atop the company for more than three decades, including as the newly scrutinized planes were being developed. The company has spent millions over the past years lobbying decision-makers in Washington.

Now, as Boeing faces crumbling public confidence in one of its marquee products, those ties are being viewed in a new light. Even under increasing pressure from airline labor groups and lawmakers to take the planes out of use, the administration maintains the 737 Max 8 model remains safe to fly.

Trump spoke by phone Tuesday with CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who assured him the 737 Max 8 was safe, despite two recent crashes. Hours after the call – which was scheduled after a crash in Ethiopia killed 157 people – the Federal Aviation Administration said it remained confident in the planes, even as governments across Europe and Asia grounded them.

Helmed by an acting administrator for more than a year, the FAA finds itself the focus of congressional and public scrutiny for its role in inspecting and ensuring the safety of Boeing airplanes. Some US pilots who fly the Boeing 737 Max registered complaints about the way the jet has performed in flight, according to a federal database accessed by CNN.

Keep reading.

Canada Minister of Transport Marc Garneau just announced that as the result of new data that they received this morning, they will no longer allow Boeing 737 Max 8 or 9 aircraftto take off and land or fly over Canadian airspace.

Flightradar24 tweeted a map showing at least six aircraft currently flying in Canada at the moment:

Iraq’s Civil Aviation Authority has banned Boeing 737 Max aircraft from entering the country’s airspace until further notice, due to technical and international restrictions using this type of aircraft.

Here’s the statement from the agency:

A software fix for the flight control system in the 737 Max aircraft was delayed, in part, by the 35-day federal government shutdown that began December 22, 2018 and lasted until January 25, 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported.

From the WSJ:

CNN reached out to Boeing and the company is declining to comment.

The “black box” data recorders recovered from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 will “definitely be going to Europe”, though they haven’t decided which country yet, says airline spokesman Asrat Begashaw to CNN.

A decision on exactly where the “black box” will go is expected Wednesday night or Thursday, Begashaw added.

When pressed about which “black box” or if he meant both black-box recorders, the Ethiopia Airlines spokesman did not differentiate between the two.Both the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and the co*ckpit Voice Recovered (CVR) were recovered at the start of the week, the airlines said in a statement issued Monday.

Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam told CNN’s Richard Quest on Tuesday that Ethiopia’s Ministry of Transport would work with the United States, where Boeing is based, to find a place outside the country to examine the black-box data. Ethiopia does not have the necessary equipment to perform those tasks on its own, GebreMariam added.

The nature of the black-box recorders cannot be overstated, says CNN’s Richard Quest.“The single most impart part of the investigation at the moment is the black boxes, because they have the answer to what happened.”

Quest also highlights that Ethiopian Airlines have not yet spoken out about the condition of the black boxes.

European discount carrier Norwegian Air is seeking compensation from Boeing for its grounded fleet of 737 Max 8 jets.

Why this matters: Norwegian is the first airline to say publicly it will demand that Boeing pay for lost flight time. It is expected other airlines will follow suit.

Norwegian has eighteen 737 Max 8 planes in its fleet, mostly for trans-Atlantic flights between Europe and the East Coast of the United States. The airline has ordered more than 100 of the 737 Max 8 planes.

“It is quite obvious we will not take the cost related to the new aircraft that we have to park temporarily,” said Norwegian CEO Bjørn Kjos in a recorded message to customers.

Kjos apologized to customers affected by the grounding of the planes and said passengers would be taken care of by combining flights, reallocating aircraft and rebooking customers on other airlines. He said Norwegian lost just 1% of the airline’s seat capacity because of the grounding, and he hoped the planes would be back in the air soon.

Boeing’s 737 Max 8 is operating in an ever-shrinking geographic area as country after country has grounded the plane or banned it from flying overhead. And this map shows what’s left.

Earlier this morning, there were just 33 of the airplanes spotted on Flightradar24, a popular flight tracker.

The vast majority of them were in the US, over its waters, or in the Caribbean.

And they are being operated by just four carriers – American Airlines, Air Canada, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines – all of them headquartered in North America.

The FAA maintains it has found no systematic performance issues that would provide a basis to order grounding the aircraft, nor have any of its civil aviation partners around the world. “If any issues affecting the continued airworthiness of the aircraft are identified, the FAA will take immediate and appropriate action,” Acting FAA Administrator Daniel K. Elwell said Tuesday night.

President Trump (center, left) and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Phu Trong (center, right) witness a signing ceremony between President and CEO of VietJet aviation join stock company Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao (right) and President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Kevin McAllister (left) in February

VietJet says it will wait for Vietnam’s aviation authority to make a conclusion on the Boeing 737 Max before deciding if it will use the 200 planes it recently purchased.

Some background: In February, Vietjet inked a $12.7 billion deal with Boeing for 100 737 Max planes which was witnessed by President Trump andVietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong as part of a bilateral summit in Hanoi.

In a press release dated Feb. 27, VietJet said the company had signed a previous order in 2016 for 100 Boeing 737 Max jets, bringing the total of planes on order to 200.

VietJet released a statement on its Facebook page Wednesday saying that it is closely monitoring the accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAA) announced it would not grant new license for the use of Being 737 Max aircraft and had neutralized the current licenses.

Multiple airlines and dozens of countries have grounded Boeing 737 Max 8s following Sunday’s deadly crash in Ethiopia.

But not all Max 8s are out of the air. Here’s a look at who is still flying Max aircraft:

An American Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 comes in for landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York City on Monday.

Pilots in the US formally complained at least five times about the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, according to reports and complaints obtained by CNN.

The complaints are part of a federal database to which pilots can anonymously send complaints. The identity and airlines of the pilots are unclear. CNN has approached the FAA for comment.

Some of the pilots logged complaints about unintended nose-down situations while flying the Max 8 jet, which has now been involved in two deadly crashes in less than six months.

One wrote that they turned autopilot on, and “within two to three seconds the aircraft pitched nose down,” causing the plane’s safety system to sound the warning “Don’t sink, don’t sink.”

Last year, a Lion Air Max 8 plane crashed after it was automatically sent into a nose dive because the plane’s system detected it was in danger of stalling, investigators said. The pilots engaged in a futile tug-of-war with the plane, attempting to revert the nose dive.

Travel site Kayak announced that it will allow customers to filter trips by aircraft model, according to Kayak CTO Giorgos Zacharia.

Zacharia said the company is releasing the enhancement this week and is “committed to providing our customers with all the information they need to travel with confidence.”

Here’s the full statement:

The Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, where Max 8 aircraft are produced.

Airlines and governments around the world have grounded the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft after it was involved in its second deadly crash in five months. But a critical question still faces carriers: what to do with their outstanding orders for the MAX 8 jet?

Nigerian airline Air Peace, which placed orders for 10 new Boeing 737 MAX 8s, says it is “premature” to decide on whether to cancel the purchase, a spokesman for the airline told CNN.

Air Peace Airlines spokesperson Chris Iwarah told CNN the airline was following investigations into the latest crash before it decided on its order.

The airline had ordered the new aircraft before the Ethiopian Airlines crash, he said. Air Peace Airlines said in a statement it had yet to take delivery of the planes, and it was still in early talks with Boeing about the design and other specification of the aircraft.

There were 350 MAX 8 jets in operation around the world at the time of the crash on Sunday – but Boeing had orders for another 4,661, according to company records. What happens to those orders remains to be seen.

Cairo International Airport, Egypt's busiest airport.

Egypt banned Boeing 737 Max aircraft from its airspace as a “precautionary measure” to ensure the safety of passengers, the Civil Aviation Authority said Wednesday.

It takes the tally of countries banning the Max 8 or the wider Max range to 45, further isolating the US and Canada, which are still allowing the jets to fly.

The Egyptian Authority tied its decision to the “lack of clarity” surrounding the causes of the Ethiopian Airlines crash. EgyptAir, the country’s national carrier, doesn’t own any 737 Max aircraft, but the jet will now not be allowed to land or takeoff in the country.

Egyptian authorities are working on assessing the safety of this model along with international aviation authorities, the manufacturing company and the relevant safety agencies, the statement added.

The safety crisis engulfing one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers has reached Washington, with US senators Mitt Romney and Elizabeth Warren urging the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday to ground Boeing’s new 737 MAX 8 jets until more is known about the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

But Boeing has long held sway on Capitol Hill. The company is one of the biggest players in the Washington influence game – spending millions to lobby Congress and the executive branch each year.

Last year, Boeing’s spending on lobbying topped $15.1 million,federal records show. The company ranked No. 10 in lobbying activity that year in Washington,according to a tally by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Further cementing the company’s Capitol Hill ties, a former Boeing lobbyist now serves as staff director on the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The committee on Tuesday announced it would hold a hearing at a future date about aviation safety, following Sunday’s deadly crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

You can read more about Boeing’s role in D.C. below.

A memorial for the victims of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 at the crash site on Wednesday.

Families of the victims of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 gathered at the site of the crash on Wednesday to pay tribute to their loved ones.

Carrying flowers and candles, the family members were brought to the site by bus and private car. Some have asked to enter the cordoned-off area on the site.

Feisal Hussein, who lost his father, Swalleh, in the disaster, told CNN that visiting the site is helping provide his family with closure.

But he is hoping his father’s remains will be recovered, so that the family can arrange a burial. “What we feel as a family is that our kin, our beloved dad, deserves a befitting send-off, and we can’t do that if he’s lying somewhere in Addis,” he said.

“In the unfortunate and sad event that there are no such remains, then as a family we will just conduct burial and prayers in absentia and pray that God rests his soul in eternal peace.”

Hong Kong has announced it will prohibit the operation of all Boeing Max aircraft from 6 p.m. Wednesday, local time.

“The temporary prohibition is solely a precautionary measure to ensure aviation safety and protect the public,” a spokesman for the city’s Civil Aviation Department said in a statement.

The city is a major hub for international flights, further complicating Boeing’s growing international problems around the Max 8 model.

Shortly after Hong Kong’s announcement, Lebanon’s Civil Aviation Authority joined in banning Boeing Max planes from its airspace.

An international team of investigators is still combing the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, just outside the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

They’re looking for any evidence which might provide clues behind the disaster, which claimed the lives of 157 people, or for any remains which might give the victims’ families closure.

CNN’s David McKenzie is on the ground in Ethiopia:

Kaltuma Abdallah, the mother of Ethiopian Airline Flight 302 crash victim Abdullahi Ibrahim Mohammed.

The human impact of the Ethiopian Airlines crash is still being felt around the world, with the grief fresh for passengers’ loved ones and friends.

In a local mosque in Nairobi’s Kibera neighborhood, a community gathered on Tuesday to say goodbye to 34-year-old Abdullahi Ibrahim Mohammed.

A lab technician in Saudi Arabia, Mohammed was traveling home on annual leave when his plane crashed. His family has still not received his remains.

“He wanted to buy us a place, build us a home, a good house. As long as we prayed for him that he doesn’t die,” his mother, Kaltuma Abdallah, told CNN.

Read the full article here.

India’s Ministry of Aviation has shut down the country’s airspace to all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as of Wednesday, the latest country to take action following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302.

It followed an earlier decision by the government to ground Indian airlines’ entire Max 8 fleet on Tuesday.

The ban will begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the ministry said on its official Twitter.

Boeing’s international problems continued to mount Wednesday, as more countries and airlines joined the long list of those choosing to ground the company’s 737 Max 8 aircraft.

Canadian carrier Sunwing Airlines announced it would temporarily suspend the use of its four Max 8 planes owing to difficulties in flying over countries that had banned the plane from entering.

“For evolving commercial reasons unrelated to safety including airspace restrictions being imposed by some of our partner destinations, Sunwing Airlines has taken the decision,” the airline said in a statement.

At the same time, Russia’s second largest airline S7 announced it would be grounding two 737s until more information was known about the crash.

Another airline has grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes over concerns about the model’s reliability following the crash of Ethiopia Airlines flight 302.

Fiji Airways announced Wednesday its two Max 8 planes would be grounded temporarily until more information was known about the crash.

“(The airline) continues to have full confidence in the airworthiness of the Boeing 737 Max,” the statement said.

It comes just a day after Fiji Airways said they would continue to use the planes, adding they were in “close contact with Boeing.”

The number of countries banning Boeing 737 Max 8 planes from their airspace continues to grow.

New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority said on Wednesday morning that the model of Boeing plane was not allowed to operate to or from the country.

“Currently this affects only one operator, Fiji Airways. There are no other airlines that fly this aircraft type to New Zealand,” the statement said.

The decision leaves the United States and Canada even more isolated in their decision to allow the Max 8 planes, which were involved in Sunday’s Ethiopia Airlines crash, to remain in operation.

Countries and airlines around the globe have grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes following Sunday’s fatalcrash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet of the same model.

It’s the second time in less than six months that this model has crashed soon after takeoff. A new Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 flight went down in October over the Java Sea off Indonesia, killing 189 people.

Boeing has said in a statement that they continued to have full confidence in the safety of the 737 Max 8 aircraft.

You can catch up on our coverage by following the links below:

Daniel K. Elwell, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said it has conducted a review of the Boeing 737 Max 8 and found “no basis” to ground the aircraft.

“Thus far, our review shows no systematic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft,” Elwell said in a statement.

Read his full statement:

Kuwait’s Directorate General for Civil Aviation said it is suspending operation of all Boeing 737 Max 8 flights until further notice.

The DGCA said it is taking the action after two planes of the same type crashed in the past five months.

The ban applies to all Boeing 737 Max 8 flights, including those in transit, the DGCA said.

Boeing said the call between its CEO Dennis Muilenburg and President Trump occurred after Trump’s morning tweets about how flying has become too complicated.

“Dennis reiterated to the President our position that the MAX aircraft is safe,” a company spokesperson said.

Here’s what Trump tweeted earlier today:

The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates banned all operation of Boeing 737 Max 8s and 9s from flying in its airspace following the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.

The planes are not allowed to fly until further notice.

“No operator shall operate the Boeing 737-8 ‘MAX’ and Boeing 737-9 ‘MAX’ aircraft from, in to or over the United Arab Emirates Airspace,” the GCAA said in a statement.

The only two nations still flying a substantial numbers of Boeing 737 MAX 8s are the United States and Canada.

India’s aviation authority is grounding the Boeing 737 MAX immediately, according to a tweet from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

“These planes will be grounded till appropriate modifications and safety measures are undertaken to ensure their safe operations,” the tweet reads.

Fly Dubai said on its Facebook page that its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 was also grounded, on a directive from UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority. It will use its fleet of Boeing 737-800 aircraft for flights instead to minimize disruption.

A growing number of airlines around the globe have announced they won’t fly the planes until they know what happened in Sunday’s fatalcrash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet, which killed all aboard.

YetBoeingsaid no grounding is needed.

The cost of grounding all 737 MAX planes could be between $1 billion and $5 billion, according to estimates from Wall Street firms Melius Research and Jefferies.

Boeing could afford that cost: It postedrecord revenueof $101 billion last year, and a $10.6 billion profit. It had forecast even stronger results this year. But Boeing’s stock has fallen 11% this week.

The FAA and Boeing both say a software upgrade will give pilots greater control over plane in case problems emerge with the planes’ safety systems. That fix is due in April.

And two US airlines flying the 737 MAX 8 — American Airlines and Southwest — say they will continue to fly those planes.

President Trump and Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg spoke by telephone today, following the president’s tweet about how flying has become too complicated, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.

Muilenberg, who has talked to Trump frequently and appeared alongside him several times during the first two years of his presidency, spoke to the president after he tweeted, “Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly.”

Why it matters: This would be the first known conversation between the Boeing CEO and the president since the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane Sunday, which has led countries around the world to ground the 737 Max 8.

The officials did not share details of their conversation, but both confirmed the call to CNN.

JoAnne Bander

Several passengers who recently arrived on a Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane at LaGuardia Airport in New York told CNN they would take the flight again. Other passengers were not aware they had been flying on a 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Robert Kogan of Miami read about the aircraft before his flight but he said he just “assumed that if today is my day to go, it’s my day, and the chances would be very rare of anything happening.”

Asked if he would fly the aircraft again, Kogan said, “I think I’m on one to go back [to Miami]. I’m fine.”

JoAnne Bander, also of Miami, said the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash was upsetting, and that she hadn’t checked what aircraft for her flight.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal just sent a letter to the CEOs of American Airlines, Southwest, and United asking they take the “common sense step” and ground their Boeing 737 Max 8s while the FAA gathers answers.

“The American aviation industry has a long history of safety and excellence, due in part to the trust passengers and their families can place in the air carriers and operators,” Blumenthal wrote.

While waiting for her flight from Istanbul to Birmingham, United Kingdom, Sara Tor heard the airport intercom announce her plane was changing — to a Boeing 737 MAX 8.

Nevertheless, she boarded Turkish Airways flight 1969 for the four-hour flight.

About two hours into the flight, she says she noticed something odd.

“Well they didn’t tell us straight away but I could feel something was different,” she says.“And the map on the screens was showing we’d turned back.”

The pilot then announced they would be turning back to Istanbul because UK airspace was closed, citing weather conditions. (Around that time, the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK closed the airspace to all Boeing 737 MAX model planes.)

The flight turned around and landed about two hours later at the same airport from where they left.

Tor says Turkish Airways told the passengers they will be put on a Wednesday morning flight instead.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Fox News Tuesday said that it’s too “early in the process” for the United States to ground the fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8s.

Sanders said the decision will ultimately be a process and that the administration will be in constant contact with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation.

President Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday that “airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT.”

The European Union is suspending all operations of all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in Europe beginning at 3 p.m. ET, according to a statement.

Read their statement:

The announcement follows a growing tide of European countries that grounded or banned the airplane from flying overhead.

The president of a major flight attendant union on Tuesday called for the Federal Aviation Administration totemporarilyground the Boeing 737 MAX fleet “until FAA-identified fixes to the plane can be installed, communicated, and confirmed.”

“The United States has the safest aviation system in the world, but Americans are looking for leadership in this time of uncertainty. The FAA must act decisively to restore the public faith in the system. Again, we caution everyone to not jump to conclusions and not interrupt the integrity of the investigations.”

She called the FAA’s notice “insufficient considering the legitimate fear and uncertainty following two deadly accidents involving this aircraft.”The FAA notice, which was issued on Monday, said it would require “design changes” to the plane by April.

Aviation regulators in more than a dozen other countries grounded the 737 MAX 8 after one crashed in Ethiopia this weekend, the second of this model to crash in less than six months.None of the major US-based carriers are among the sixteen individual airlines worldwide that have suspended using this model of plane.

Austria, Poland and Italy have all suspended the use of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the aftermath of the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Jonathan Weaks, the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, says the union is “extremely confident” that the 737 MAX is safe. He says he’s being in discussions with the airline and other unions.

Here’s part of his statement:

Weaks also said he would put his family, friends and loved ones on any Southwest flight, but that he has lobbied for training to “evolve and improve.”

The note indicates that the union asked for some of the changes Boeing plans to implement. He also warns that if new information comes to light that the union “will not hesitate to hold any organization or person accountable.”

Turkish transportation and infrastructure ministry said in a statement Tuesday that it is grounding all Boeing 737 MAX type aircraft following the two crashes of this type of a plane.

The Turkish Civil Aviation Authority has reviewed the two incidents with the aircraft and has decided to ground the plane from operating in Turkey.

“As a result of the review, the flights of Boeing 737 Max 8 and/or 9 type aircraft have been suspended until a further decision is announced as a precaution in order to ensure flight safety,” Turkish transportation and infrastructure ministry said in the statement.

Turkish transportation spokesperson told CNN when asked for more clarification about this decision, “This decision grounds the aircraft being operated by Turkish companies in Turkey. Turkey has not closed off it’s airspace to the aircraft, but it is still on the table and is being reviewed.”

Turkish Airlines spokesperson, Yahya Ustun, tweeted Tuesday, “The 12 Boeing 737 MAX type passenger aircraft in our fleet have been grounded for commercial operations until further notice.”

Republican Sen. John Thune — who has oversight of the aviation industry and the FAA as a member of the Aviation subcommittee of the Commerce and Transportation Committee — said Tuesday he would “prefer flying on some other plane” rather than Boeing’s 737 MAX 8.

Thune, who is also a the second-ranking Senate Republican leader, seemed to suggest he would be open to grounding the planes if the evidence pointed to it, but stopped short of saying the planes should be grounded at this point unless and until an NTSB investigation finds there is a problem with the plane.

He said he will also wait for the investigation before considering hearings in his subcommittee.He said he has not talked to anyone at Boeing about his concerns.

Reporter: Would you safe flying a Super Max 8 right now?Would you fly on it?

Senator Thune: “Uhh…well, I guess I would uh, probably like everybody else, prefer flying on some other plane.”

…

Reporter: Do you think Boeing should ground those planes?

Thune: “I think we need to wait until the investigation, until we have more evidence.”

Reporter: So you’re saying they should investigate more before grounding?

Thune: “I think we need to know what the facts are and hopefully we’ll know those soon.”

Note: This post originally referred to Thune as chair of the subcommittee. He is in fact a member – Sen. Ted Cruz is the chair.

Germany and Iceland have both joined other countries in introducing suspensions of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 aircraft, following the fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight on Sunday.

German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer will close the airspace for the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a Transport Ministry spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday.

Icelandic airline Icelandair also confirmed they are to suspend the aircraft in tweets sent to customers from their official account on Tuesday.

France’s DGAC civil aviation authority says it has decided to ban Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from French airspace, according to a statement:

The president of the Association of Flight Attendants sent a letter to the Acting Administrator of the FAA advising the agency that both crew and passengers “are expressing concerns about the 737 MAX 8.”

White stating that the union supports the investigative process and cautions the public “to avoid drawing conclusions prior to uncovering the facts of the incident,” Sara Nelson writes that “the second accident in less than five months involving the same model airplane gives rise to concerns and a quick jump to conclusions that undermine full confidence in the aircraft type.”

“We encourage the relevant authorities to take steps immediately to address concerns and ensure the safety of the 737 MAX fleet,” the letter asks.

See it:

The Irish Aviation Authority has temporarily suspended Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from Irish airspace, according to a statement from the organization.

The suspension went into effect at 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

Boeing said it has “full confidence in the safety” of it 737 MAX jets and it is not issuing any new guidance.

Here’s the full statement:

Boeing’s 737 Max airplanes are coming under fresh scrutiny for their safety record. But it was only two weeks ago that President Trump oversaw the sale of 100 of the planes while in Hanoi for a summit with Kim Jong Un.

Ahead of his nuclear talks, Trump participated in a trade signing ceremony with a number of airline executives inside the Vietnamese presidential palace.

Among them was Kevin McAllister, executive vice president of The Boeing Company and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

One of the agreements was between Boeing and VietJet, a low-cost airline based in Hanoi. The deal was for 100 of the 737 Max planes — 80 of the Max 10 variety, and 20 of the Max 8, the aircraft now under new scrutiny following crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

Boeing said the order was worth $12.7 billion. Now, Vietnam is saying the safety issues must be resolved before the planes can fly.

“The first aircraft [in the order] is supposed to be delivered in October,” said Đinh Việt Thắng, the chief of Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority, according to Vietnam News. “This morning, we had a meeting about this issue and came to the decision that we will not be reviewing licenses for the use of Boeing 737 MAX planes until the causes for the crashes are identified and the US Federal Aviation Administration takes proper remedying measures.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, is calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to ground 737 Max 8 planes in the US.

Warren is also calling for congressional hearings.

Here’s her full statement:

The pilots of the doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight told air traffic control they were having “flight control problems” before the crash, airline CEO Tewolde GebreMariam told CNN’s Richard Quest Tuesday.

That suggests the plane was not responding to pilots’ inputs and they were losing control of the aircraft, Quest explains.

GebreMariam said the flight data recorders “will be sent overseas,” rather than being read in Ethiopia, which does not have the technical capability to do it. He did not say where, specifically, they would be read.

Pilots were aware of airworthiness directive issued after the Lion Air crash in October and had had additional training, he said.

TUI Airways – one of the UK’s largest air carriers – just issued a statement confirming that all of its 737 MAX 8 aircraft operating in the UK have been grounded.

That decision follows guidance from the UK regulatory authorities, the carrier said.

It added, “Any customers due to fly home today on a 737 MAX 8 from their holiday will be flown back on another aircraft. Customers due to travel in the coming days will also travel on holiday as planned on other aircraft. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and staff has remained our primary concern.”

When the UK announced a ban on all Boeing 737 MAX jets this morning, some of the MAX 8 jets were already en route to land at UK airports or travel through UK airspaces.

At least least two of those flights now appear to be turning back.

Turkish Airlines 1997 was en route from Istanbul to London Gatwick when it changed course:

And Turkish Airlines 1969 was on its way to Birmingham from Istanbul:

The US National Transportation Safety Board visited the Ethiopian Airlines crash site today, according to Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority official Amdeye Ayalew.

The Nairobi, Kenya-bound plane went down within minutes of taking off from Addis Ababa.

The crash killed 157 people, seven of them crew members and one a security official.

Sen. Mitt Romney, in a tweet, is calling for the FAA to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8. He’s the first Republican senator to say the aircraft that was involved in two recent crashes should be grounded.

He joins Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Dianne Feinstein.

See the tweet:

What Blumenthal said:

What Feinstein said:

Norwegian Airlines just released a statement, saying it is temporarily suspending its use of the Boeing 737 MAX.

Tomas Hesthammer, Norwegian’s acting Chief Operating Officer, apologized to customers, saying, “Safety will always remain our top priority.”

Here’s the full statement:

As more airlines and countries ground Boeing 737 Max 8 planes in the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, President Trump tweeted about the state of air technology – notably, that things are becoming too complicated.

In a second tweet finishing the thought, the President said modern airlines’ “complexity creates danger,” and, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot.”

The United Kingdom has banned all Boeing 737 Max planes from departing, arriving or being in its airspace.

But there are two 737 Max 8 planescurrently in its airspace:

There are also planes en route to cities in the UK:

The Dow fell 45 points at the open Tuesday, dragged down by Boeing.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.2%.

Boeing fell 4% Tuesday after several countries and airlines grounded their 737 MAX jets, the type of plane that his been involved in two fatal crashes in less than six months.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has banned Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes from its airspace Tuesday.

Here’s more from the agency:

The Omani Civil Aviation authority tweeted Tuesday that it is temporarily suspending the operations of Boeing 737 Max.

Chang Woo, from Montreal, flew to Los Angeles on Monday on a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft — but she didn’t realize it was the same kind of plane involved in Sunday’s crash until she was already in the air.

“I was already on the plane by that time, so I couldn’t really go anywhere,” she told CNN after she landed at Los Angeles International Airport.

She said the airline, Air Canada, did not tell passengers what kind of plane they were on, and she only learned about the model by reading markings and lettering on the aircraft.

She said that on future trips, she may avoid booking flights on the model.