No 737 MAX entered Bangladesh airspace since Ethiopia crash

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Bangla Tribune Desk
Published : 02:00, Mar 14, 2019 | Updated : 02:00, Mar 14, 2019

A Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft is parked at a Boeing production facility in Renton, Washington, US, March 11, 2019. REUTERS/File PhotoSeveral foreign airlines operating flights to Bangladesh use Boeing 737 MAX 8 but after last week’s Ethiopia crash, none of the planes entered the country’s airspace, says Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).

“Right this moment no airlines are operating the aircraft in Bangladesh,” its chairman Naim Hassan told the BSS on Wednesday (Mar 13).

The airlines in Bangladesh will not be allowed to buy or take lease of that model until the safety concerns are cleared, said CAAB chairman.

No airlines in Bangladesh have the modern plane in their fleet as of now, but only US-Bangla Airlines signed a recent contract to rent a 737 Max-8 and operate flights.

US-Bangla last month announced that it will lease 737 Max aircraft for 12 years through leasing company AerCap.

“We will decide the matter after getting investigation report of the last crash is published,” US-Bangla spokesperson Kamrul Islam told BSS.

Several countries grounded the craft of the brand since the Ethiopian crash on Sunday with China being the first country to temporarily decommission all its 96 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes.

Twelve Chinese airlines own about a quarter of all 737 MAX aircraft in operation globally.

Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Morocco and Singapore quickly followed suit, along with carriers in Latin America and South Korea while India banned the craft for operation yesterday.

Among Indian carriers, Spice Jet has 13 jets of the model 8 variant in its 76-strong fleet while Jet Airways has five.

The US aviation regulator said on Tuesday it would not ground the MAX 8 planes. It said a review by the body “shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft.”

The Max is the latest model of the 737 series of the US company Boeing Company, the world’s biggest plane maker, and being used for commercial flight from May 22, 2017.

Boeing saw billions of dollars wiped off its market value since the crashes but insisted technically the 737 MAX was a safe craft.

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 had crashed on Sunday killing 157 people on board after less than five months when 189 people were killed as a Boeing737 MAX 8 of Lion Air crashed in the Java Sea, close to Jakarta, Indonesia in October last year.

/hm/
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