Comair has decided to temporarily remove its 737 MAX from its flight schedule, although neither the regulatory authorities nor the manufacturer had required it to do so.
China, Indonesia and other airlines announced on Monday that they had grounded their 737 MAX jets following the crash of an Ethiopian Airline plane on Sunday. The plane crashed just minutes after take-off killing everyone on board.
In October last year, one of the jets crashed while flying from Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers on board.
In a statement issued on Monday, Comair airline division executive director Wrenelle Stander said that while Comair had done extensive preparatory work prior to the introduction of the first 737 MAX into its fleet and remained confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft, it decided temporarily not to schedule the aircraft while it consulted with other operators, Boeing and technical experts.
He says the safety and confidence of their customers and crew is always our priority.
According to Comair, The MAX was the latest iteration of the most common commercial aircraft ever manufactured. It was well-established around the world, particularly in the fleets of large carriers in the United States.
There are currently over 370 Boeing 737 MAXs in operation, with 47 airlines. The type operates approximately 1 500 flights a day and has accumulated over 250 000 flights in total with an excellent record of daily reliability.
- African News Agency (ANA)
