The Chinese airlines have grounded 96 737 MAX jets in service after the Ethiopian airlines became the second casualty of the Boeing make in the skies.
The order by the Civil Aviation Administration, issued Monday morning, said all Boeing BA 737 Max 8s in China must be grounded by 6 p.m. local time.
Caijing, a Chinese state-run news outlet that covers finance and economics, said many flights scheduled to use 737 MAX planes would instead use the 737-800 models.
In issuing its order, the aviation regulator noted similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday and another in Indonesia in October of a flight operated by Lion Air. The regulator’s notice said both crashes occurred in the takeoff phase.
Two brand new Boeing 737 Max 8 airplanes crashed in 5 months. If China has grounded all 96 of its 737 Max 8s, then Southwest, American, and United Airlines should really do something to reassure the American people that its 737 Max 8 airplanes are airworthy or ground them too.— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) March 11, 2019
A U.S. official told Reuters the United States was unsure of what information China was acting on.
The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said there were no plans to follow suit given the 737 MAX had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information about the cause of the Ethiopian crash.
Western industry sources say China has been at pains in recent years to assert its independence as a safety regulator as it negotiates mutual safety standard recognition with regulators in the United States and Europe.
In 2017, it signed a mutual recognition deal with the FAA, but industry sources say it has struggled to gain approval from the FAA that would allow it to sell its C919 airliner to Western airlines.
In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board.