Following the Tragic accident of ET 302/10 March B-737-8 MAX (ET-AVJ), Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday March 10, 2019 until further notice.
“Although we don’t yet know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution,” Ethiopia Airlines said, this morning its 5th communique on the incident of Boeing 767-8 Max. Including the one crashed yesterday, Ethiopian Airlines has received a total of five Boeing 767-8 Max from the United States aircraft manufacturer, Boeing.
It recalled that last October similar model of Boeing airplane operated by Lion Air has crashed minutes after takeoff carrying 189 passengers. The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee has indicated that Lion Air flight 610 experienced erroneous input from one of its AOA (Angle of Attack) sensors.
Following the Jakarta Boeing 767 Max – 8 crash, on November 6, 2018, Boeing issued an Operations Manual Bulletin (OMB) directing operators to existing flight crew procedures to address circumstances where there is erroneous input from an AOA sensor.
Out of the 100 plus airplanes Ethiopian Airlines currently operates 73 are Boeing aircrafts. Established by the assistance of the United States with few World War II leftover aircrafts, Ethiopian Airlines has been closely working with the U.S. aircraft manufacturer for over 70 years.