Global Boeing fears grow, families await Ethiopia crash remains

Thứ Ba, 12/03/2019, 20:17
Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and Oman became the latest nations to suspend Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on Tuesday, while identification of the Ethiopian crash’s 157 victims dragged and black boxes were yet to yield the cause.

Sunday’s disaster - following another fatal crash of a 737 MAX jet in Indonesia five months ago - has caused alarm in the international aviation industry and wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world’s biggest planemaker.

Global Boeing fears grow, families await Ethiopia crash remains.

But experts say it is too early to speculate on the reason for the crash or whether the two are linked. Most crashes are caused by a unique chain of human and technical factors.

Given problems of identification at the charred disaster site, Ethiopia Airlines said it would take at least five days to start handing remains to families.

The victims came from more than 30 different nations, and included nearly two dozen U.N. staff.

“We are Muslim and have to bury our deceased immediately,” Noordin Mohamed, a 27-year-old Kenyan businessman whose brother and mother died, told Reuters.

“Losing a brother and mother in the same day and not having their bodies to bury is very painful,” he said in the Kenyan capital Nairobi where the plane had been due.

Flight ET 302 came down in a field soon after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, creating a fireball in a crater. It may take weeks or months to identify all the victims, who include a prize-winning author, a soccer official and a team of humanitarian workers.

The United States has said it remained safe to fly the planes, and Boeing has said there is no need to issue new guidance to operators based on the information it has so far.

Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its four other 737 MAX 8 jets as a precaution and aviation authorities in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and Oman followed China, Indonesia and others to temporarily suspend Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in and out of their airports.

TRAVELERS WORRIED

Anxiety was also evident among some travelers, who rushed to find out from social media whether they were booked to fly on 737 MAX planes - the same model involved in the Lion Air crash off Indonesia that killed 189 people in October.

“Three of my colleagues have had clients asking if their flight was operated by that aircraft,” said an agent at the Nairobi office of Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

Black box recorders were found from the Ethiopian crash site on Monday, but it was unclear where they would be looked at.

So long as the recordings are undamaged, the cause of the crash could be identified quickly, although it typically takes a year to fully complete an investigation.


Reuters