By Giwa SHILE
A group of aviation professionals, the Aviation Round Table (ART), has called for the temporary suspension of the Boeing 737 MAX 800 aircraft from commercial operations due to safety concerns.
The President of the ART, Mr Gbenga Olowo, made the call in a statement issued on Tuesday in Lagos following Sunday’s crash of a B737 Max 800 aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines.
TBO Africa said the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ethiopian Airlines had grounded all B-737-800MAX aircraft in its fleet till further notice following the crash of its flight ET302 which killed all 157 persons on board.
Some other countries had also grounded the accident aircraft type in their operations following global safety concerns.
Olowo noted that the Ethiopian Airlines incident was the second within five months coming on the heels of the crash in Indonesia of the same aircraft type flown by Lions Air in October 2018.
“These series of fatal accidents call to question the safety in the design of the Max 8 series by the manufacturer and its certification to fly by the United States Federal Aviation Authority – the safety regulation authority in the country of manufacture.
“Curiously, there had been no reported case of such fatal accidents of the aircraft in the US since the aircraft came into operations.
“We condole with the families of those who lost their lives in the unfortunate accidents,” he said.
Olowo, therefore, urged Boeing, the US FAA and International Civil Aviation Organisation to jointly consider these recurring fatal accidents on the B737 MAX as a calamity to the global travelling community.
According to him, these aviation regulatory bodies should therefore demand that the aircraft be temporarily grounded from commercial operations.
“We noted that some countries including China, Indonesia,Ethiopia, Mexico etc have grounded the B737 Max on their fleet pending the determination of the cause of the incessant crashes.
“ART is very hopeful that these global aviation bodies would respond promptly to the demand that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 New Generation be suspended from commercial operations,” he said.
