Europe Reacts to the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 Crash

“Safety is Boeing’s number one priority and we have full confidence in the safety of the MAX. We understand that regulatory agencies and customers have made decisions that they believe are most appropriate for their home markets. We’ll continue to engage with them to ensure they have the information needed to have confidence in operating their fleets. It is also important to note that the Federal Aviation Administration is not mandating any further action at this time, and based on the information currently available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators.”

This should come as no real surprise considering the investigation into the Ethiopian crash has yet to be concluded and the causes to be discovered. The manufacturer did today announce it will deploy a software upgrade for the variant, although this has no link to the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

“This includes updates to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) flight control law, pilot displays, operation manuals and crew training. The enhanced flight control law incorporates angle of attack (AOA) inputs, limits stabilizer trim commands in response to an erroneous angle of attack reading, and provides a limit to the stabilizer command in order to retain elevator authority,” it details, adding that the upgrade is designed “to make an already safe aircraft safer.”

What Authorities Have Said

The United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said, “The UK Civil Aviation Authority has issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights (operated by a MAX aircraft) from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace.

This immediately impacted TUI Airways, a U.K.-German owned holiday company. Although the announcement was made, TUI flights TOM485 & TOM2BY were both permitted to continue their flights into U.K. airspace and land at Manchester Airport. TUI has around 6 aircraft registered in the United Kingdom, all based at the airline’s hub in Manchester.

The German Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer then announced that the aircraft type is now barred from entering German airspace.

“Security is absolutely in. Until all doubts have been dispelled, I have ordered that the German airspace for the Boeing 737 Max is now blocked,” said Scheuer.

Following the two airspace closures, Turkish Airlines flights THY3HN inbound to Birmingham and THY4TW inbound to London-Gatwick turned around and headed back to Istanbul. THY3HN was just inside southern Germany before making the 180-degree turn.

Russian federal aviation regulator Rosaviatsia has requested further information from Boeing and the U.S. FAA on the type but has so far decided to not take similar actions to ban the aircraft. S7 Group airline Globus is the only Russian airline with MAXs in its feet with 2 MAX 8s in service.

Ireland, a frequent MAX recipient from airlines such as Air Canada and Norwegian Air International, also made a decision today: “The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has decided to temporarily suspend the operation of all variants of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft into and out of Irish airspace, in the light of the two fatal accidents involving the aircraft in recent months.”

The French, Netherlands and Austrian authorities followed suit and took the same action against the aircraft by suspending it from operating within their respective airspaces.

A short time later the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, issues a blanket ban on all MAX 8 & 9 aircraft from European airspace. In a statement, the agency said: “As a precautionary measure, EASA has published today an Airworthiness Directive, effective as of 19:00 UTC, suspending all flight operations of all Boeing Model 737-8 MAX and 737-9 MAX airplanes in Europe. In addition, EASA has published a Safety Directive, effective as of 19:00 UTC, suspending all commercial flights performed by third-country operators into, within or out of the EU of the above-mentioned models”

What Airlines Have Said